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Sauce

Liver Sauce

A sauce made by stewing finely pounded livers with butter, herbs, wine, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Liver Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the livers finely with the butter.

  2. Add parsley, tarragon, green onions, Port wine, cullis, pepper, salt, coriander seeds, cinnamon, and sugar.

  3. Stew all ingredients together for 5 minutes.

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. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Parsley + coriandertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Tarragon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

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

  5. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat livers
Provide the main body and rich flavor of the sauce once pounded smooth.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture when worked into the livers.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and its liquid helps the sauce cook down.
Cullis
Supplies liquid and savory body so the mixture can stew together.

The step that matters

Stew all ingredients together for 5 minutes. Stewing for only the stated time gently cooks the livers through without toughening them. Overcooking causes proteins to tighten and turn grainy and dry, so the sauce can lose its smooth texture.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, parsley, tarragon, onion, port wine, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, parsley, tarragon, onion, port wine, pepper. 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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