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Liver, Fat Ragout of

A ragout of fat goose livers simmered with stock, wine, herbs, and finished with a cream and egg yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Liver, Fat Ragout of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the livers

  1. Remove the gall-bag from the livers, ensuring no yellow spots remain.

  2. Soak the livers in milk for several hours to whiten them.

Cook the livers

  1. In a stewpan, combine the livers with gravy stock and light wine.

  2. Add parsley, shallots, pepper and ginger mix, bruised cloves, bay leaf, and salt.

  3. Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  4. Drain the livers.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Reduce the cooking liquid by boiling until it thickens to a sauce.

  2. Place the livers on a dish.

  3. Mix egg yolks with cream.

  4. Pour the mixture over the livers.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Livers
Form the main body of the dish and carry its rich, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture as it sets, giving the topping a smooth, rich body.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the flavour and texture of the livers.
Gravy stock
Provides the savoury liquid that cooks the livers and reduces into the sauce.
Light wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, balancing the richness of the livers.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet aromatic depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Gentle heat keeps the liver proteins tender. Boiling causes them to tighten and toughen, and it can also make the egg and cream topping curdle or split.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, milk, wine, parsley, shallot, pepper, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, milk, wine, parsley, shallot, pepper, clove. 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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