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Chicken Livers in Papillotes

Chicken livers baked in parchment with butter, flour, water, ham, and optional glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Livers in Papillotes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the livers

  1. Wash the livers and drop them into boiling water for 1 minute.

  2. Remove and drain the livers, then split them in half.

Make the sauce

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour, stirring until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the cold water, stirring continuously.

  3. If using, stir in the glaze, then season with salt and pepper.

  4. Add the finely chopped ham to the sauce and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the sauce mixture over the livers and place them in parchment paper packets (papillotes).

  2. Place the packets in a baking pan and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes.

  3. Serve on a bed of toast or fried brown bread.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken livers
Provide the main body of the dish, cooking tender inside the sealed packets.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and water into a smooth sauce that coats the livers.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Bake the packets gently. A slow oven cooks the livers through while the sealed parchment traps moisture, keeping them tender. Overbaking can make liver dry and grainy, so the time should be watched closely.

“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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