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Fried Liver and Gravy

A dish of sliced calf liver fried in fat, served with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Liver and Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the liver

  1. Heat the drippings or bacon fat in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the liver slices and fry until browned on both sides.

  3. Season with salt and pepper while cooking.

  4. Remove the liver from the pan and set aside.

Make the gravy

  1. In the same pan, add the flour and stir for a minute.

  2. Gradually add the hot water, stirring until it thickens.

  3. Strain the gravy over the liver before serving.

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. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Is the main food, browning on the outside while staying tender inside.
Drippings or bacon fat
Conducts heat for frying and adds savoury flavour to the liver and pan.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the gravy by absorbing liquid as it cooks with the pan drippings.

The step that matters

Gradually add the hot water while stirring. Adding the liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour smoothly dispersed. Pouring it in all at once can trap lumps of starch that do not hydrate, leaving the gravy grainy.

“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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