Skip to main content
Main

Casserole of Rice and Liver

A casserole of rice and lamb liver, baked with a browned flour sauce and topped with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Casserole of Rice and Liver

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice shell

  1. Boil the rice in water until soft and paste-like.

  2. Mash the rice with butter, salt, and pepper until smooth.

  3. Line a greased casserole with the rice mixture, pressing it against the bottom and sides.

  4. Leave a hollow in the center.

  5. Chill the casserole until firm.

Make the liver filling

  1. Boil the lamb's liver.

  2. Drain the liver and chop it finely.

  3. Heat the soup stock in a saucepan.

  4. Season the stock with kitchen bouquet.

  5. Thicken the stock with browned flour.

  6. Stir the minced liver into the sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the hollow in the rice with the liver mixture.

  2. Sprinkle the mixture with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake until browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Rice + lambtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + lambtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the firm, moulded shell that holds the filling in shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the mashed rice turn smooth and tender.
Lamb's liver
Provides the main savory filling, with a rich, meaty flavor.
Soup stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that moistens the liver filling.
Browned flour
Thickens the stock into a sauce, giving it body and a toasted flavor.
Bread crumbs
Adds a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Chilling the rice shell until firm. Cooked rice sets as it cools, so chilling it fully lets the shell hold its shape. If it is still soft, the liver filling can break through the walls when added and baked.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes