Skip to main content
Main

Bewitched Liver

A boiled liver terrine made with calf liver, salt pork, breadcrumbs, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Liver and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,606 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Bewitched Liver

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the calf’s liver, salt pork, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, black pepper, and red pepper together in a bowl.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a tin mold.

Cook

  1. Place the mold in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil.

  2. Boil for two hours.

  3. Remove the mold and place it in a cool oven to dry for a little while.

Serve

  1. Once thoroughly cold, turn it out of the mold.

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. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  2. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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

Calf’s liver
Forms the main body of the terrine and gives it its rich, dense texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat, which keeps the terrine moist and well flavoured as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape when sliced.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it cooks, holding the terrine together.

The step that matters

Boiling in the water bath. The mold must be cooked gently in water that is kept at a steady heat so the mixture sets evenly. Vigorous boiling can make the texture coarse and cause the mixture to crack or puff.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes