Skip to main content
Main

Devilled Chicken Liver

A spread of mashed chicken livers seasoned with mustard, salt, cayenne, anchovy essence, and butter, served on toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Pound the cooked livers until smooth.

  2. Mix in mustard, salt, cayenne, anchovy essence, and a little butter.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on hot buttered toast.

  2. Use a salamander or broiler to heat the toast for a few seconds.

  3. Cut into pieces, garnish with parsley, and 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 livers
Provide the main body and rich flavour of the spread when pounded smooth.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the liver.
Cayenne pepper
Adds gentle heat that gives the spread its devilled character.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth that boosts the overall flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and smoothness, helping the paste spread easily.

The step that matters

Heating the toast with a salamander or broiler. Only a few seconds of heat is needed to warm the spread and toast without drying the liver mixture or burning the bread. Too long under intense heat can scorch the toast and make the spread tough and dry.

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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes