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Farce of Fat Livers for Gratins

A farce made from fat livers or leg of veal, bread panada, and raw eggs, used in gratins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Farce of Fat Livers for Gratins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the farce using fat livers or leg of veal as directed for game pies.

  2. Add one-third the quantity of well-made bread panada and an equal proportion of raw eggs to bind it.

  3. Roll a small quantity in flour.

Test and adjust

  1. Bake on a small baking sheet at 400°F (200°C) for five minutes.

  2. Check if it holds its shape and is firm.

  3. If it shrinks or melts, add more panada and another egg.

  4. Use the farce safely if it passes the firmness test.

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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together731 recipes

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

  4. Liver + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fat livers or leg of veal
Provides the main body and rich flavour of the farce.
Well-made bread panada
Adds moisture and softness, helping the farce stay tender when cooked.
Raw eggs
Bind the mixture and set on heating to hold its shape.

The step that matters

Firmness test. Eggs set when heated and bread panada absorbs and holds moisture. If the test shows shrinking or melting, the balance of binders is off, and adding more panada and egg helps the farce hold together when cooked.

“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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