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Preparation of Goose Liver

A method for cooking goose liver with onion, salt, garlic, lard, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Preparation of Goose Liver

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 liver

  1. Wash the liver in abundant water.

  2. Cut the heart in half.

  3. Wash out the blood carefully without severing it from the liver.

  4. If gall is attached, cut around it.

  5. Remove the gall.

  6. Place the liver in a large pan.

  7. Add the chopped onion and salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the lard in a pan until hot.

  2. Pour the hot lard over the liver.

  3. Cook in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  4. Place the liver on a plate.

  5. Strain the lard.

  6. Pour the strained lard over the liver.

  7. Add paprika to taste.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Liver + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Goose liver
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it a rich, soft texture when cooked gently.
Goose or pork lard
Cooks the liver in fat, adding moisture and a rich, savoury flavour.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth as it softens alongside the liver.

The step that matters

Cook in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 minutes. Liver is delicate and overcooking it at high heat makes it dry and grainy. A low, gentle oven heat cooks it through slowly, keeping it tender and moist.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, onion, garlic, pork):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, onion, garlic, pork. 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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