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Gateau De Lic>vre,-Hare Cake for a Second Course

A savory hare and liver cake baked slowly with lard, pistachios, truffles, and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gateau De Lic>vre,-Hare Cake for a Second Course

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Prepare the hare as directed in the cookbook, saving the liver and blood.

  2. Scrape the meat from the skin and sinews.

  3. Mince the meat with the liver, calf's liver, and ham.

  4. Pound the mixture with cold broth or hare/game soup and rasped lard until well combined.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, blanched young onions, parsley, and brandy.

  6. Mix in the eggs one at a time.

  7. Add garlic juice if desired.

Assemble the cake

  1. Line a stewpan with slices of lard and spread the forcemeat evenly to a thickness of 1.5 inches.

  2. Layer lard, pistachios, and truffles on top in a mosaic pattern.

  3. Cover with more forcemeat.

  4. Top with slices of bacon.

  5. Cover with paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the thickness of the layers.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Dip the pan in hot water to loosen the cake and turn it out.

  4. Garnish as desired.

  5. Serve on a napkin.

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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the forcemeat and help it set firm when baked.
Rasped lard
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the forcemeat tender as it cooks.
Calf's liver
Adds richness and a smooth, savory body to the forcemeat.
Hare meat
Provides the main meaty flavor and the bulk of the cake.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavor that complements the rich meats.

The step that matters

Bake slowly at low heat. Eggs in a meat forcemeat set as proteins coagulate; baking slowly at low heat cooks the cake evenly and keeps it moist and tender instead of dry or cracked.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, liver, ham, pepper, parsley, brandy, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, liver, ham, pepper, parsley, brandy, 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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