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Liver Sauce for Hare or Roast Rabbit

A sauce made from hare or rabbit liver, gravy, shallot, potherbs, vinegar, wine, jelly, and bread crumb.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Liver Sauce for Hare or Roast Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Stew the liver in good gravy until tender.

  2. Chop the liver finely with shallot, potherbs, chili vinegar, port wine, and currant jelly (for hare) or white wine (for rabbit).

Alternative methods

  1. Alternatively, pound the solid ingredients and mix them into the gravy to thicken, then add vinegar and wine.

  2. For another method, steep the roll crumb in port wine, heat with butter, beat smooth, and add pepper, salt, jelly, and vinegar.

Serve

  1. Let it boil and serve hot.

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

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

  2. Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  3. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Beef + rabbittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
Forms the body of the sauce and thickens as it is chopped or pounded.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity tartness that balance the rich liver.
Port wine
Adds depth and acidity to the sauce, with sweetness from its fortified style.
Penny roll crumb
Soaks up liquid and helps thicken the sauce to a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when heated and beaten into the sauce.

The step that matters

Beating the roll crumb smooth. If the crumb and butter are not beaten smooth, lumps remain. Steeping the crumb fully in wine lets starch swell evenly, so the sauce thickens without graininess.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, beef, veal, rabbit, shallot, parsley, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, beef, veal, rabbit, shallot, parsley, vinegar. 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 for hare recipes

or Roast Rabbit 5

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