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Devilled Chicken Liver

A spreadable paste of cooked turkey or chicken livers mixed with mustard, anchovy essence, butter, and spices, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Devilled Chicken Liver

Oven, in the book's wordsA very sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the paste

  1. Pound the cooked livers until smooth.

  2. Mix in the mustard, salt, cayenne, anchovy essence, and butter to form a paste.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the paste on hot buttered toast.

  2. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes to heat thoroughly.

  3. Cut into convenient pieces.

  4. Garnish with parsley.

  5. Serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Liver + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken or turkey livers
Provide the main body and rich flavor of the spread.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the liver.
Anchovy essence
Adds a savory, salty depth to the paste.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the paste smooth and spreadable.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the paste through a sieve breaks down any remaining fibers and lumps, giving the smooth texture the dish depends on. Skipping or rushing this step leaves a grainy spread.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, anchovy, butter, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, anchovy, butter, parsley. 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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