Name: Calf S Liver and Bacon
Ingredients: Calf's liver, sliced moderately thin; Bacon, rashers; Butter; Eggs, beaten; Olive oil; Coarse sea salt; Bread crumbs

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Calf S Liver and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat.
Dress the liver slices with coarse sea salt and cook in the skillet until browned.
Cook the bacon rashers in the same skillet until crispy.
Serve the liver garnished with the bacon.
For a variation, dip liver slices in seasoned beaten egg and olive oil, then fry quickly.
Alternatively, skewer liver and bacon pieces, dip in olive oil, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and broil until cooked.
If cooking without bacon, pour a glass of wine into the pan and serve with liver arranged around 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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together731 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).