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Brown Caviare

A preserved cod roe and liver mixture seasoned with spices and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Brown Caviare

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the roe and liver

  1. Tie the cod roe and liver in cloths and place them in a pan of boiling water with dissolved salt and saltpetre.

  2. Simmer the roe for 4 hours and the liver for 2 hours.

  3. Let them cool in the water.

Prepare and mix

  1. Remove all skins and dark specks from the roe and liver.

  2. Pound the roe and liver separately in a mortar until smooth.

  3. Mix 2½ ounces of liver with 1½ ounces of roe on a clean board using a broad knife until no dark specks remain.

Season

  1. Sift together cinnamon, cloves, mace, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves.

  2. Add table salt to taste.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cod roe
Forms the firm, smooth body of the caviar once pounded and mixed.
Cod liver
Adds richness and fat, giving the mixture a softer, creamier texture.
Saltpetre
Cures the roe and liver, helping preserve them and give them a firmer texture.
Ground cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the fish.

The step that matters

Simmering the roe and liver. Cooking for the full time sets the proteins and firms the texture; too short leaves it soft, while too long can make it tough and dry. Keeping the liver and roe on separate timings respects their different densities.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, roe, cinnamon, clove, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, roe, cinnamon, clove, 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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