Why it works: Liver and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,420 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Livee and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the bacon
Slice the bacon thinly and remove the rind from each slice.
Fry the bacon in a frying pan over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Add a small piece of drippings if the bacon is not very fat.
Turn the bacon when one side is fried.
Keep the bacon warm on a dish near the fire.
Fry the liver
Slice the liver and dip each slice in flour, coating both sides.
Fry the liver in the same pan, a few slices at a time, for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally.
Check for doneness by cutting a slice; the inside should be brownish.
Once cooked, place the liver on the dish with the bacon.
Make the sauce and serve
Mix 2 tablespoons of flour with nearly ½ cup of water to make a smooth paste.
Pour the flour mixture into the frying pan, stirring until it boils and thickens.
Pour the sauce over the liver and bacon.
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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Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,420 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Sheep's liver
- Forms the main meaty body of the dish, cooking to a firm, brownish texture.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and salty, savoury flavour, and its drippings are used to fry the liver.
- Flour
- Coats the liver for browning and, mixed with water, thickens the pan sauce.
The step that matters
Checking the liver for doneness. Liver turns dry and grainy when overcooked, yet undercooked liver is unpleasantly soft and raw inside. Cutting a slice to check that the centre is brownish, not pink or red, helps you judge doneness before serving.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour. 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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