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Liver Sauce

A savory sauce made from rabbit, hare, or poultry livers, butter, stock, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Liver Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the livers of rabbits, hares, or poultry finely.

  2. Rub the interior of a small saucepan with garlic.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in the saucepan, then stir in the flour until mixed.

  2. Add the minced shallot, parsley, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram, cloves, salt, and pepper.

  3. Pour in the stock and stir until boiling.

  4. Add the minced livers and boil for a few more minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, stir in the lemon juice, port wine, and walnut-sized butter.

  2. Garnish with boiled parsley.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 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

Butter
Carries fat that gives the sauce richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot butter and stock.
Livers (in the method)
Provide the main savoury flavour and a soft, rich body as they cook.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and liver flavours.

The step that matters

Boiling the minced livers. Livers cook quickly, and prolonged boiling tightens their proteins, making them tough and grainy. Add them late and cook only briefly so they stay tender.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, shallot, parsley, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, shallot, parsley, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram. 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.

More liver sauce recipes

Fish 11Lemon 8Chicken 7for Hare or Roast Rabbit 5Rabbit 5Fowl 3 See all 16 →

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