Skip to main content
Main

Calf's Liver Larded

A calf's liver larded with pork strips, cooked with vegetables and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Calf's Liver Larded

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the liver

  1. Lard the calf's liver by inserting strips of larding pork into the surface using a larding needle, making stitches about ¼ inch deep and 1 inch long.

  2. Arrange the strips in rows, ensuring the ends of the second row fit between the ends of the first.

Roast

  1. Place the liver in a dripping pan with sliced carrot, onion, and salt pork.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, and cloves.

  3. Pour ½ cup of Spanish sauce or brown gravy over the liver.

  4. Cook in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour until thoroughly done.

Serve

  1. Serve the liver on a hot platter, strained with the cooked vegetables and additional sauce.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, moist texture when roasted with sauce.
Larding pork
Melts slowly into the lean liver, adding moisture and richness throughout the meat.
Spanish sauce or brown gravy
Adds moisture and savory browned flavor to the liver and the pan juices.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan, adding richness and savory flavor to the liver.

The step that matters

Cooking until thoroughly done. Liver is lean and can turn dry and grainy if overcooked, yet it must be cooked through for safety. Checking doneness near the end of the roasting time helps balance both.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pork, carrot, pepper, parsley, thyme, clove):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pork, carrot, pepper, parsley, thyme, clove. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes