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Fricassee of Calves Liver

A stew of calf liver strips fried and simmered in a broth with onions, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricassee of Calves Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Dredge the liver strips in flour.

  2. Fry the liver in dripping until brown, turning frequently.

Make the gravy

  1. In a separate pot, combine the broth, onions, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Stew the mixture gently for 15 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the broth mixture over the fried liver, cover tightly, and simmer for 10 more minutes.

  2. Transfer the liver to a platter and pour the gravy over it.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves liver
Provides the main protein and tender texture that the dish is built around.
Flour
Coats the strips so they brown well and help thicken the gravy.
Broth
Forms the liquid base of the gravy and keeps the liver moist as it simmers.
Onions
Soften while stewing and add sweetness and savory depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Fry the liver until brown, turning frequently. Liver cooks quickly and turns tough and grainy if overcooked. Frequent turning promotes even browning and browning flavor without drying the strips before they join the gravy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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