Why it works: Shallot and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Liver Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the liver sauce
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.
Add the shallot and fry until it colors slightly.
Stir in the chopped liver and shake the pan for 1-2 minutes.
Add a little broth, stir well, then pour in all the broth and simmer until the liver is cooked.
Strain the broth and add the marinade from the hare.
Bring the mixture to a boil, skim carefully, and keep warm in a bain-marie.
Finish the sauce
Pound the liver and onion mince to a paste and pass through a sieve.
Remove the saucepan from heat and let the broth cool for 2 minutes.
In a cup, mix part of the broth with the saved blood, then add this and the liver paste to the saucepan.
Return to heat and bring almost to a boil to finish.
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.
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Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together380 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Shallot + red curranttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together49 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Port wine + red curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chopped liver
- Provides the main flavor and body of the sauce once cooked and pressed into a paste.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the flavor of the shallot and liver.
- Blood
- Thickens the sauce and gives it a smooth, rich body when added off the heat.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce that the liver cooks in.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when used in place of blood.
The step that matters
Adding the blood. Blood thickens by coagulating when heated, so it must be stirred into the sauce off the heat and then only brought almost to a boil. Boiling after it is added can curdle it and leave the sauce grainy.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, liver, port wine, vinegar, ketchup, flour):
- Red currantthe original
- Lemonfits about as well
- Applefits about as well
- Raisinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, liver, port wine, vinegar, ketchup, flour. 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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