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Calf's Liver, Fried

Thin slices of calf's liver are rolled in egg and cracker crumbs, then fried in pork gravy or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,606 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Calf's Liver, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the calf's liver into thin slices.

  2. Wash and dry the slices.

  3. Roll the slices in egg and then in cracker crumbs.

Cook

  1. Fry in hot pork gravy or butter until cooked through.

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. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  2. Liver + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,177 recipes

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

  3. Egg + porktop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,387 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Is the main protein, cooked through to a tender, firm texture.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the cracker crumbs stick to the liver slices.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
Pork gravy or butter
Fat that conducts heat for frying and adds flavour and browning.

The step that matters

Frying until cooked through. Liver is thin and cooks quickly, so overcooking makes it dry and grainy, while undercooking leaves it unsafe. Hot fat sears the crumb coating quickly, so the slices should be fried over steady heat until just cooked through.

“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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