Name: Attereaux of Goose’s Fat Liver
Ingredients: ½ of a cold, cooked fat liver, cut into ½ inch squares; ½ of cooked pickled ox-tongue, cut into ½ inch squares; 1 handful of minced truffles; a few tablespoons of hot villeroy sauce; breadcrumbs; 2 beaten eggs; plenty of hog's lard for frying

Why it works: Liver and truffle work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 395 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Attereaux of Goose’s Fat Liver

Ingredients

½ of a cold, cooked fat liver, cut into ½ inch squares
½ of cooked pickled ox-tongue, cut into ½ inch squares
1 handful of minced truffles
a few tablespoons of hot villeroy sauce
breadcrumbs
2 beaten eggs
plenty of hog's lard for frying

Directions

Prepare the filling

Combine the liver and ox-tongue squares in a bowl.
Season the mixture.
Sprinkle minced truffles over the mixture.
Pour hot villeroy sauce over the mixture and coat the mixture thoroughly with the sauce.
Let the mixture cool.

Bread and fry

Thread the liver and tongue squares alternately onto small skewers.
Roll the skewers in breadcrumbs.
Dip the skewers in beaten eggs.
Roll the skewers in breadcrumbs again.
Heat hog's lard in a pan.
Fry the skewers until golden 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.

Liver + truffletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together395 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Truffle + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,604 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Truffle + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,490 recipes
Liver + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together499 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Liver + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,177 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fat liver: Provides the rich, soft filling that gives the skewers their core texture and flavour.
Villeroy sauce: Binds the chopped pieces together and keeps the filling moist as it cools.
Eggs: Bind the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the skewers during frying.
Breadcrumbs: Form a crisp outer crust that browns in the hot lard.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture cool before threading. If the filling is still warm and soft, it will not hold its shape on the skewers and the breadcrumb and egg coating can slide off or break. Cooling firms the sauce so the coating sticks and the skewers fry cleanly.

“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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Attereaux of Goose’s Fat Liver