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Pain of Calf’s Liver, French Way

A French-style pate made from calf's liver, bacon, onion, mushrooms, Madeira wine, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pain of Calf’s Liver, French Way

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the liver

  1. Fry the chopped onion in melted fat bacon until soft.

  2. Add the bay leaf, thyme, and diced fresh bacon; cook for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the sliced calf's liver and season with salt, pepper, and spices.

  4. Cook the liver until nearly done, then add chopped mushrooms and truffle trimmings.

  5. Moisten with Madeira wine and reduce quickly, then remove from heat to cool.

Make the pâté

  1. In a mortar, combine panada with the liver mixture and pound for a few seconds.

  2. Gradually mix in the whole eggs and egg yolks, then pass through a sieve.

  3. Transfer to a kitchen basin, season, and mix well with a spoon.

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. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Thyme + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the pâté and gives it its rich, savoury flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set on gentle heat, giving the pâté a firm, smooth structure.
Panada (bread paste)
Adds body and helps the pâté hold together with a smoother, lighter texture.
Fresh bacon
Adds fat and savoury depth that keeps the liver mixture moist and flavourful.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it reduces into the liver mixture.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavour and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the liver until nearly done. Calf's liver turns grainy and dry when overcooked, and it keeps cooking as it cools. Stopping just short of done keeps the pâté tender and smooth once it is pounded and bound with eggs.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, liver, pepper, mushroom, truffle, madeira wine, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, liver, pepper, mushroom, truffle, madeira wine, bread. 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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