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Larded Liver

Larded liver is liver sliced and larded with pork strips, fried, and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,606 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Larded Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Soak the liver in cold water with salt for 30 minutes to draw out the blood.

  2. Dry the liver thoroughly with clean cloths.

  3. Make holes in the liver with a sharp skewer and insert pork strips evenly.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a clean, warm frying pan and add the liver pieces.

  2. Fry slowly for 25 minutes, turning after 5 minutes and again after 10 minutes.

  3. Drain excess grease and serve on a hot platter with a half teaspoon of tomato sauce on each slice.

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.

  1. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  2. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Liver + tomatotop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Liver
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a firm, tender texture when fried slowly.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders into the liver through the inserted strips.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and sweetness to balance the rich, savory liver and pork.

The step that matters

Drying the liver before inserting pork and frying. Surface moisture keeps the liver from browning well and can cause spattering in hot fat. Thorough drying helps the pan sear the surface rather than steam it.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pork, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits about as well
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pork, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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