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A Liver Cheese Recipe

A liver cheese made from chopped hog liver, belly fat, eggs, and spices, baked in a tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,476 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Liver Cheese Recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Prepare a tin or sheet iron mold, 12 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 6 inches high, with a tight-fitting cover.

  2. Cover the inside of the mold with a layer of raw white fat, cut thin.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped liver and belly fat.

  2. Add the eggs and all the spices to the liver mixture and combine well.

  3. Fill the mold tightly with the mixture, pressing down to avoid air bubbles.

Cook and cool

  1. Place the cover of fat over the mixture, then put on the metal cover, greased inside, and tie it tightly.

  2. Immerse the mold in boiling water and cook for 2½ hours.

  3. Remove from water and let it stand to cool.

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. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Hog liver
Forms the bulk of the mixture and gives the cheese its firm, sliceable body.
Belly fat
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the cooked mixture from drying out.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and fat so the mixture holds together when cooked and sliced.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture into the mold. Packing tightly and pressing out air bubbles removes pockets that can cause holes or uneven texture, and keeps the loaf dense and firm as it sets during cooking.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, egg, thyme, mace, clove, shallot, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, egg, thyme, mace, clove, shallot, butter. 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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