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Chicken Livers a LA Phillipe

A baked casserole of chicken livers with sweet potatoes, rice, bacon, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken Livers a LA Phillipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the livers

  1. Season the chicken livers with salt and pepper.

  2. Fry the livers in butter until cooked but not dry.

Assemble the dish

  1. In a pudding dish, create a border with the mashed sweet potatoes.

  2. Add a border of boiled rice inside the sweet potatoes.

  3. Fill the center with the fried chicken livers.

  4. Top with 2 slices of bacon.

  5. Cover the potatoes with the egg white.

  6. Add small dabs of butter on the rice before baking.

Bake

  1. Bake in a fairly hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the potatoes are light brown.

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. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Sweet potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sweet potatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken livers
Provide the rich, meaty filling at the centre of the dish.
Sweet potatoes
Form a soft, moist border that holds the filling and browns on top.
Boiled rice
Adds a tender, starchy layer that sits between the potatoes and the livers.
Egg white
Sets on the potato topping as it bakes, helping it hold its shape and brown.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the livers as the dish bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the rice and livers brown lightly while baking.

The step that matters

Fry the livers until cooked but not dry. Chicken livers turn grainy and dry when overcooked, and they keep baking further in the oven, so they should be removed from heat while still slightly tender.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, liver, pepper, rice, butter, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, liver, pepper, rice, butter, egg. 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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