[5] While the "simple"[6] and "homely"[7] dish is found frequently in cookbooks that feature inexpensive foods,[citation needed] such as the 1898 Practical Cookery Manual of Plain and Middle Class Recipes,[8] it is also featured in The White House Cookbook by Hugo Ziemann, who was a White House steward.

[10] In 2004, the American Good Housekeeping cookbook referred to the dish as "classic",[1] a status reinforced by its occurrence in such famous cookbooks as Isabella Beeton's Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management[11] and Christian Isobel Johnstone's The Cook and Housewife's Manual.

The bacon and slices of liver are placed in a dish and covered with a gravy[12] made with the fond.

[13][14] It is imperative that the dish be served quickly, as the liver ought to be eaten when hot and tender.

[15] Besides at dinner or supper (Mrs Beeton suggests it aux fines herbes as an entree in a copious meal[16]), one finds calf's liver and bacon as a breakfast meat also,[17][18] for instance in the Sherwood hotel in Florida, 1903.