Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Liver and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the bacon and liver
Fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy, then place it on a hot dish.
In the bacon fat, fry the liver seasoned with pepper and salt, dredged lightly in flour. Turn the liver occasionally to prevent burning.
Once cooked, arrange it around the dish with a piece of bacon between each slice.
Make the pan sauce and serve
Pour off excess bacon fat, add a small piece of butter, a little flour, lemon juice, and water to the skillet.
Bring the mixture to a boil and pour it in the center of the dish.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Is the main protein, and light flour dredging helps it brown and form a crust while staying tender inside.
- Bacon
- Renders fat for frying the liver and adds salty, smoky flavor.
- Flour
- Thickens the pan liquid into a sauce and lightly coats the liver for browning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the finished pan sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich liver and bacon flavors.
The step that matters
Turn the liver occasionally. Liver is lean and cooks quickly, so overcooking makes it dry and grainy; turning it helps the surface brown evenly without burning.
“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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