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Strasssurger Goose-liver Pie

A savory pie made with layers of ham, belly meat, shallots, spices, goose liver, truffle, and sealed with lard and dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Strasssurger Goose-liver Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Grease the bowls with lard.

  2. Chop the meats finely and mix with shallots, salt, pepper, ginger, mace, and mushrooms.

  3. Layer the mixture in the bowls, starting with a ⅓ inch thick layer.

  4. Add a layer of goose liver and truffle, then repeat until the bowl is filled.

  5. Stuff the filling firmly but carefully to avoid mashing the livers.

Seal and bake

  1. Cover with a layer of lard and seal with moist dough around the opening.

  2. Cook in an open casserole with water up to an inch from the cover for 1.5 hours.

  3. Insert a pricking needle at the opening; it should come out clean.

  4. Weigh down the cover while cooling to ensure a tight seal.

  5. Remove foam and dough from the opening, then fill with melted lard to seal.

  6. Fasten the cover with molten lard.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Ginger + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together867 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Goose liver
Gives the pie its rich, smooth, buttery texture and deep flavor.
Lean meat from hams
Provides the firm, savory body that holds the filling together when sliced.
Meat from the belly
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the filling tender and juicy during slow cooking.
Lard
Seals the surface and adds fat, protecting the filling from air and drying.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet aromatic onion flavor that deepens the savory profile.

The step that matters

Insert a pricking needle at the opening. The needle test shows whether the interior has reached a safe, fully cooked state. Without it, the pie may be underdone or overcooked, and the filling texture will suffer.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, shallot, ginger, mace, mushroom, liver):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, shallot, ginger, mace, mushroom, liver. 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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