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Cold Pie of Eel-pout Livers

A cold pie made with eel-pout livers, truffles, bacon, pike flesh, short pastry, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and truffle work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 395 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Cold Pie of Eel-pout Livers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the livers and truffles

  1. Blanch the eel-pout livers in acidulated water without boiling; let cool in the water.

  2. Cut the livers into squares and place in a bowl.

  3. Add the truffles, season with salt and spices, and baste with sherry.

  4. Pound the trimmings of the livers with truffles and anchovy fillets.

Make the force-meat

  1. Chop the bacon and pike flesh, mix with the liver trimmings, and season the mixture.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a pie mold and line it with short pastry.

  2. Spread a layer of the force-meat on the bottom and sides of the mold.

  3. Fill the mold with eel-pout livers and truffles, alternating with force-meat.

  4. Shape the pie into a dome, cover, and bake for 2 hours at 350°F (175°C).

  5. After 30 minutes out of the oven, pour in about 1 cup of liquid around the top of the pie.

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. Liver + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

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

  2. Truffle + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Liver + sherrytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eel-pout livers
Provide the rich, delicate liver flavour and tender texture that define the pie.
Truffles
Add a strong, earthy aroma that perfumes the whole pie.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour, keeping the force-meat moist as it cooks.
Pike flesh
Adds lean body and firmness to the force-meat, helping it hold together when sliced.
Short pastry
Forms the crisp, sturdy shell that holds the filling during baking.

The step that matters

Blanch the livers without boiling. Boiling toughens and firms liver proteins, making the texture grainy and dry. Gentle heat in acidulated water keeps the livers tender and pale.

“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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