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Liver Sauce for Hare or Roast Rabbit

A sauce made from hare or rabbit liver, gravy, shallot, herbs, vinegar, wine, currant jelly, and a penny roll crumb.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,677 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Liver Sauce for Hare or Roast Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stew the liver in good gravy until tender.

  2. Chop the liver finely with shallot, herbs, chili vinegar, port wine, and currant jelly (if using hare).

  3. Alternatively, pound the solid ingredients and mix them into the gravy to thicken, then add vinegar and wine.

  4. For a different method, steep the roll crumb in port wine, heat with butter, and beat smooth.

  5. Add pepper, salt, jelly, and vinegar, let it boil, and serve hot.

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. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
Forms the body of the sauce, giving it a rich, savoury flavour and smooth texture when cooked and chopped.
Gravy
Provides the liquid base and meaty flavour that the liver is stewed in and thinned with.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity note that balances the richness of the liver.
Port wine
Adds depth, sweetness and aroma to the sauce.
Chili vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that cuts through the richness of the liver.
Penny roll crumb
Thickens the sauce, giving it body when steeped and beaten smooth.

The step that matters

Boil after adding the jelly and vinegar. Boiling briefly lets the jelly dissolve fully and the vinegar's sharpness mellow into the sauce. Overcooking can make the liver dry and grainy, so the sauce should be kept hot without prolonged boiling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, beef, clove, shallot, vinegar, port wine, butter):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, beef, clove, shallot, vinegar, port wine, butter. 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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