Name: Calves Livek and Bacon
Ingredients: liver; flour; bacon; parsley; hot deep fat for frying

Why it works: Flour and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Calves Livek and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Slice the liver thinly and pour boiling water over it.
Roll the liver pieces in flour, making them about 1½ inches square.
Slice the bacon very thin and cut it into 1½ inch squares.
Using a wooden toothpick, skewer a piece of liver, then a piece of bacon, and repeat until full.
Drop the skewers into hot deep fat and fry until browned.
Serve as a course for dinner, garnished with parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Liver + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,418 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).