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Ragout of Liver

A savory ragout made with liver, bacon, onion, and spices, simmered in a buttery gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ragout of Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the liver

  1. Heat the dripping in a frying pan.

  2. Add the sliced onion, chopped parsley, and minced bacon; cook until hissing hot.

  3. Add the liver pieces and fry until brown, turning often.

  4. Remove the liver and keep it hot.

Make the gravy

  1. Strain the gravy.

  2. Rinse the frying pan.

  3. Return the pan to the heat with the gravy.

  4. Mix in the butter and brown flour until smooth.

  5. Gradually thin with boiling water.

  6. Add lemon juice, minced pickle, and curry powder.

  7. Boil sharply.

Serve

  1. Pour over the liver.

  2. Cover tightly over a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 and provides its rich, savoury flavour when browned.
Brown flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the fat, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy, helping it become smooth and glossy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich liver and gravy.
Bacon
Contributes savoury, salty fat that flavours the onion and the pan base.

The step that matters

Gradually thin with boiling water. Adding the water slowly while stirring keeps the flour smooth and prevents lumps, because starch disperses evenly when it is blended into hot liquid in small amounts.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, liver, butter, flour, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, liver, butter, flour, lemon. 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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