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Sheep’s Liver K LA Carinthia

A baked sheep's liver dish with truffle, potatoes, herbs, butter, Madeira, and batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme 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 ↓

Sheep’s Liver K LA Carinthia

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Clean and wash the sheep's liver thoroughly.

  2. Mince the liver, truffle, raw potatoes, parsley, marjoram, lemon thyme, onion, and garlic together.

  3. Add grated rusk or toast and season with salt, black pepper, cayenne, pounded ginger, and allspice. Mix well and lay the mixture in a deep dish on small lumps of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour Madeira or claret over the mixture and fill the dish with batter.

  2. Bake in a brisk oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.

  3. Serve immediately before the batter falls.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's liver
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it its rich, meaty flavour.
Truffle
Adds a strong earthy aroma that defines the dish's flavour.
Raw potatoes
Add starch and moisture to the minced filling, helping it hold together and stay tender.
Butter
Adds fat that moistens the filling and enriches the flavour as it melts during baking.
Batter
Bakes into a light, set topping that encloses the filling.
Madeira or claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour that brightens the rich liver and truffle.

The step that matters

Serve immediately before the batter falls. Batter set by oven heat rises and then collapses as it cools and loses steam, so timing the serving keeps the topping light and intact.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, truffle, potato, parsley, marjoram, lemon, thyme):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, truffle, potato, parsley, marjoram, lemon, thyme. 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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