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Kalveleverpostej

A Danish liver pâté made with pork fat, butter, flour, milk, calf liver, eggs, spices, and optional onion.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven325 °F
Time1¼ hours

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the fat base

  1. Put the pork fat through a food grinder or into an electric blender.

  2. Transfer the ground fat into a large, heavy skillet.

  3. Add the butter and the flour, and enough milk to make a thick porridge-like mixture.

  4. Cook until the fat has absorbed, cooking very slowly.

  5. Skim off any fat that does not absorb.

Make the liver mixture

  1. Wash and clean the calf liver thoroughly.

  2. Cut the liver into manageable pieces and feed through the finest blade of a meat grinder.

  3. Mix the ground liver with the fat mixture, and pass through a coarse sieve to make a smooth paste.

  4. Add the egg yolks, salt, pepper, and a good pinch of ground cloves.

  5. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.

  6. If desired, add a little grated onion to the blend.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill bread tins about three-quarters full with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a pan of hot water for 1¼ hours, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. (Preheat oven to 325 °F.)

  3. Do not remove any fat that may come to the surface; it will be absorbed.

  4. Let the pâté cool in the pans, then dip in boiling water to loosen after it has chilled overnight.

  5. Slice thinly and serve on dark bread, garnished as desired.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,144 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pork + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,598 recipes

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

  4. Pork + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pork + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,848 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' liver
Provides the main flavour and a fine, spreadable body once ground.
Pork fat
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pâté a smooth, silky texture.
Egg yolks
Emulsify and enrich the mixture, helping it set firm when baked.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiffness, they add lightness and help the pâté rise and set.
Flour
Thickens the fat and milk into a porridge-like base that holds the paste together.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, contributing to a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Cook the fat base very slowly. Slow cooking lets the fat and flour absorb gradually without scorching or browning. A scorched base tastes bitter and gives the pâté an uneven texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, flour, milk, liver, egg, pepper):

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Sagebetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, flour, milk, liver, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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