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Liver Cake

A baked liver and bread mixture with onions, sage, mushrooms, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 642 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Liver Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine grated bread, minced liver, chopped onions, sage, mushrooms, and laurel leaf.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Butter a mold or deep dish and fill it with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1½ hours.

  2. Once done, turn it out and let it cool.

  3. Slice and serve cold.

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. Sage + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + laureltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Laurel + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated bread
Provides the bulk and binds the liver into a sliceable loaf.
Liver
Supplies the main body, rich flavor and protein that set during baking.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften within the mixture.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savoriness to the loaf.

The step that matters

Baking until fully set. The loaf must bake long enough for the liver and bread to set firmly; underbaking leaves a soft, crumbly center that falls apart when turned out and sliced.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, liver, sage, mushroom, laurel, pepper, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, liver, sage, mushroom, laurel, pepper, nutmeg. 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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