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Goose Liver Klosse
(Germany.) This can be made equally well of calf's liver. In Germany, goose is a favorite fowl, and there are plenty of livers left over for fancy cookery. Crumble 2 slices of stale bread and soak them in enough milk to cover. Melt 1 ounce butter, add 4 beaten eggs, parsley, salt, and a pinch of spice. Stir until it thickens, add bread, and 1 cup of chopped liver- parboiled- and make it all into balls. Poach these in broth for 1/2 an hour. Drain and serve in a pile, with a good sauce. This is a good dish, and the recipe can be made, baking the whole in a dish, instead of as above.
A German liver dumpling in the Leberklösse family, written for cooks who already knew how a panade behaves. The vague points are the egg-and-butter step and the poaching liquid; get those right and the rest follows.
- Poach at a bare simmerThis is the hinge. Liver klösse held at a rolling boil break apart and turn spongy; the broth should barely shiver, around 180-185F. Slide one test ball in first and let it cook through before committing the rest of the batch.
- The egg step is a custard, not scrambled egg"Stir until it thickens" means gentle heat and constant motion. Take the pan off the burner while it is still loose and glossy; if the egg sets into curds the dumplings will be granular.
- Bread and milkTwo slices probably came from a denser loaf than a modern sandwich slice, so perhaps 2 to 2.5 oz; the recipe does not say. Soak in milk, and squeezing the crumb out before adding it will keep the mixture from being too slack to hold a shape.
- 1 ounce butterTwo tablespoons.
- "A pinch of spice"In German liver dumplings this is commonly nutmeg, mace, or allspice, and marjoram often appears as well. A grating of nutmeg and a little black pepper is the safe reading.
- Parboiling the liverBlitzing raw goose or calf liver for two or three minutes in simmering water firms it enough to chop cleanly and mutes the metallic edge. Chill it before chopping; warm liver smears rather than dices.
- Half an hour is longBalls of about 1.5 inches are cooked through in 12 to 15 minutes at a simmer. Thirty minutes suits large dumplings only, and will dry small ones out.
- The baked versionThe recipe says only to bake the whole in a dish and gives no oven heat. In modern terms, spread the mixture in a buttered dish and bake gently -- a water bath and a moderate oven around 350F work well -- until just set in the centre. It behaves like a coarse terrine.
- Yield and sauceRoughly a dozen and a half small dumplings, enough for four as a light dish or starter. The recipe does not say what "a good sauce" means; a brown gravy made from the poaching broth, or browned butter with fried breadcrumbs, both suit it.
Liver dumplings are old and widespread across the German-speaking lands, where Leberknödel and Leberklösse turn up floating in clear broth in Bavaria and Austria and served drained with sauce further north. The note about goose is the honest part of this entry: geese were kept for roasting, for fat, and for feathers, and the liver was a by-product that a thrifty kitchen turned into something better than its status suggested. The bread-and-milk panade is the same trick that binds meatballs, quenelles and forcemeats across Europe, stretching a small amount of costly protein and keeping it tender. The recipe leads with a national label and explains the goose before it explains the method.