Name: Sheep's Liver, Heart and Tongue
Ingredients: liver of a sheep; heart of a sheep; tongue of a sheep; water; butter; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Liver and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,065 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Sheep's Liver, Heart and Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the heart in cold water for 2 hours to remove blood.
Boil the liver, heart, and tongue until tender.
Remove the skin from the tongue and let it cool.
Chop the liver, heart, and tongue together finely.
Warm the mixture with a little water and season generously with butter, salt, and pepper.

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.

Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,375 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).