Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Liver Hash
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the liver until thoroughly tender.
Mince the liver finely with a chopping knife.
Heat the minced liver in a sauce of butter and browned flour until very hot.
Season with pepper, salt, and a dash of lemon juice or piquant sauce.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Liver
- Forms the main body of the hash, giving it its rich, meaty flavor and dense texture.
- Butter
- Provides fat for the sauce, carrying flavor and giving the sauce a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
- All-purpose flour
- Browned with butter, it thickens the sauce so it coats the minced liver.
The step that matters
Heating the minced liver in the butter and flour sauce. The liver should be heated until very hot so the sauce thickens and the dish is safely hot throughout. Flour must be cooked enough to lose its raw taste and thicken properly, while overheating can make the liver tough and dry.
“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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