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Fgorcemeat for Raised Pies

A savory filling made from chicken livers, veal fat, eggs, and seasonings, used in raised pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fgorcemeat for Raised Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the bread and herb base

  1. Heat butter in a pan.

  2. Sauté parsley, lemon thyme, mushrooms, and garlic until the butter is clear.

  3. Add the crumbled French roll and pour in the consommé.

  4. Stir until it thickens to a paste.

Cook and pound the livers

  1. Boil chicken livers in cold water with salt until they start to boil.

  2. Drain and trim the livers.

  3. Fry the livers in clarified butter until cooked through.

  4. Pound the cooked livers in a mortar until smooth.

  5. Add the hard-boiled egg yolks.

  6. Mix in the veal fat.

  7. Add the bread mixture.

  8. Pound until well blended.

Finish and cover

  1. Incorporate the truffles or their liquor.

  2. Add the whole eggs.

  3. Add the egg yolks.

  4. Add pepper.

  5. Add pounded spice.

  6. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a basin.

  7. Cover with fat bacon until ready to use.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mushroom + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

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 and rich flavour of the filling once pounded smooth.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
French roll
Absorbs liquid and thickens the filling into a workable paste.
Consommé
Adds savoury moisture and seasoning to the bread paste.
Veal fat
Adds richness and moisture, giving a smoother, silkier texture.
Clarified butter
Fries the livers gently and adds a clean, nutty richness.

The step that matters

Fry the livers until cooked through. Livers must be cooked through for safety, but overcooking makes them dry and grainy. Gentle heat keeps the pounded filling smooth and moist.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, lemon, thyme, mushroom, butter, garlic, chicken):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, lemon, thyme, mushroom, butter, garlic, chicken. 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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