Why it works: Liver and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,375 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Calf's Liver and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the liver
Cut the liver thinly and evenly with a sharp knife.
Pour boiling water over the liver and let it stand for a few minutes to parboil.
Remove the liver from the water and dry it.
Cook and serve
Fry thin slices of bacon in a skillet.
In the bacon fat, fry the liver, seasoning it well with salt and pepper as it cooks.
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 + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 ingredient, cooked until tender in the bacon fat.
- Bacon
- Its fat is used to fry the liver, adding savory flavor and richness.
The step that matters
Parboiling and drying the liver. Pouring boiling water over the liver briefly firms its surface and mellows its strong flavor. Drying it well before frying lets the liver brown rather than steam in the pan.
“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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