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Spiced Liver

A savory liver dish cooked with bacon, onion, spices, and egg, then baked in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spiced Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the liver

  1. Render the fat from the bacon and discard the bits of meat.

  2. Add the sliced liver to the grease and cook until lightly browned.

  3. Pour in ½ cup boiling water, add the bay leaf and onion, and bring to a boil.

  4. Simmer until the liver is very tender and the liquid reduces to ½ cup.

Make the loaf

  1. Remove the bay leaf and grind the liver and onion together.

  2. Beat the egg slightly and mix it with all the ingredients.

  3. Pack the mixture into a greased small mold (a baking powder can or a water‑tight cocoa box works).

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 loaf and gives its rich, meaty flavour.
Egg
Binds the ground mixture so it holds together when sliced.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the loaf a firmer, more even texture.
Bacon
Its rendered fat adds savoury richness and helps brown the liver.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma that mellow during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer until the liver is very tender and the liquid reduces to ½ cup. Liver turns tough and grainy if overcooked, and a loaf made from undercooked, watery liver will be loose and hard to bind. Reducing the liquid concentrates the flavour and leaves a mixture that can be packed firmly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, vinegar, cinnamon, liver, onion, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, vinegar, cinnamon, liver, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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