Chicken Liver Paté: The Topic

[Chris Amirault]

Egged on by my daughter, who has a real jones for the stuff, I've become a chicken liver paté nut. I admit that I used to toss most of the goodies inside whole chickens, but for a while now I've been getting excited if I find a bird with extra livers packed in there, as I did today.

At first I sorta followed the recipe from Craig Claiborne's NYT Cookbook, but now I pretty much wing it thusly:

1. Slice up some onions and lightly brown them in schmaltz.

2. Add trimmed livers and cook until they're just un-pink, no more.

3. Add some booze (applejack, cognac, rum) and deglaze; then add a bit of cream, quatre epices, thyme, and scrape up everything off the bottom.

4. Beat a couple of eggs with the immersion blender, and add a few tablespoonfuls of the hot juice from the pan to temper the eggs.

5. Toss in everything else and blend until smooth.

6. Fine strain into ramekins, and cook them in a bain marie at ~300F until they're set (30-40 minutes, usually, but depending on the depth of the paté in the ramekins).

Couldn't be easier -- and they're pretty damned good, if I do say so myself. However, I'm sure that there are tweaks, tricks, and other things to learn. I've also been wondering about other flavor combinations -- something Mexican, say, with a añejo tequila, toasted cumin and ancho, bit of garlic, perhaps. I dunno.

What's your take?

[vice]

I'm right with you on steps 1-3, but I skip over 4 right to 5. Fin. (In fact, this is more or less the process Peter the Eater has described as one of his Reputation Makers.)

[Chris Amirault]

No eggs, you mean?

[lesliec]

Wifey, whose chicken liver pate is without equal, also skips the eggs. She also finds a powerful blender (we don't have a commercial one, but what we do have is a step up from the stick blender she used to use) makes a big difference to the smoothness of the end result.

[Katie Meadow]

I'm very impressed. Last night for dinner we made banh mi. I roasted the pork a la Andrea, and made the pickled daikon-carrot mix, and wondered if I shouldn't learn how to make chicken liver pate instead of buying it ready made.

[Blether]

That's too funny. Those look very like the CLP's I make, in exactly the same ramekins, except mine are red.

A pate like this a pretty common British stabndard since Delia Smith put it in her Complete Cookery Course (in fact, in one of the two separate volumes that it originally consisted of). Howver, the recipe uses a lot of butter (being one of Delia's), melted in the deglazed pan, and no eggs or baking stage. Her flavourings IIRC are brandy, garlic, thyme, black pepper and nutmeg. The nutmeg works well, but not for me every time. I like to vary with raw onion instead of the garlic, and capers are another thing that works.

CLP is, yes, wonderful stuff, and when I'm brave I make a batch from the 2kg packs of liver I can get in the market here for like 4 bucks.

Edited February 27, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Ann_T]

My favourite recipe for chicken liver pate is Jacques Pepin's. It doesn't contain eggs but it does have three sticks of butter.

[Blether]

Is that jelly on top, rather than clarified butter, Ann_T ? How did you make the flowers ?

[HKDave]

My recipe is derived from Michel Richard's 'Faux Gras' from Happy in the Kitchen. No eggs, no pre-cooking the liver, no straining. Just lots and lots of fat.

Saute but don't brown 200ml minced onion and 1 clove microplaned garlic. Add 125ml cream and a splash of cognac. Cover and cook until soft.

Off the heat melt in 250g goose or duck fat (Richard uses butter here; I strongly prefer goose fat, or a 50/50 goose fat/butter mix). Add salt, white pep and a bit of grated nutmeg or whatever you like to taste. Figure 1t salt if you use unsalted butter or fat, plus 1/2t white pepper, and adjust from there. Like all pates, it needs to be saltier than you think.

Puree everything with 500g of well-trimmed chix liver. No need to strain it unless you're working at a really classy place. Divide into 2x500ml ramikins, cover with foil, cook in bain-marie at 300F until set in the middle, about 40min if you started with boiling water in the bain, and you did, didn't you? Let cool, then top with a mix of parsley and melted salted goose fat (Richard uses parsley gelee here; the traditional aspic works, too).

I am always surprised by how much of this stuff people can eat.

[vice]

No eggs, you mean?

Correct, no eggs, like several of the others above (beautiful, btw, Ann. I'm also curious if that's an aspic and how you did the design).

[Chris Amirault]

So it would seem that one can either add an egg or two or a boatload of butter to get the right consistency. Makes me wonder what sorts of other emulsifying ingredients could be used....

[weinoo]

My maternal grandmother, who was by no means French, used hard-boild eggs in her liver paté, aka "chopped liver." Onions, schmaltz, livers, hard-boiled eggs, all chopped up in her old wooden bowl with her old hockmeisser.

[Chris Amirault]

In his "quick" recipe, Claiborne uses hard-boiled eggs exactly like that.

[syoung68]

So it would seem that one can either add an egg or two or a boatload of butter to get the right consistency. Makes me wonder what sorts of other emulsifying ingredients could be used....

What does MC have in it for pate? I am sure Nathan and crew experimented with other emulsifiers.

[Blether]

I have stashed away, a family friend's recipe for a luxury pork liver pate, which uses pork liver sausage and philadelphia cheese, in about equal proportions IIRC, with worcester sauce and just enough curry powder to give a great flavour, without being recognisably 'curry'.

[prasantrin]

Any chance of sneaking a peek at the luxury pork liver pate recipe? Do you make your own pork liver sausage for it, or use a commercially-made product?

[Jim Dixon]

from my site....

Cibreo

Supposedly a favorite of Caterina de’ Medici, although hers was made with cockscombs, hearts, and assorted other gizzards. Even people who claim they don’t like liver eat this up.

Finely chop an onion or a couple of shallots, and start cooking them in butter, extra virgin olive oil, or a little of both. After a few minutes, add about a half pound of the best chicken livers you can find. You could chop these up first, but raw liver is messy, so I chop them in the pan with a spatula and paring knife while they cook.

When the livers are about half cooked, sprinkle a couple spoonfuls of flour over them. Stir well, and let the flour cook for a couple of minutes. Add more fat if it’s too thick. Pour in about a cup of water, and, if you feel like it, a splash of white wine. Stir and continue cooking, adding more water if the mixture gets too thick. You want a consistency thick enough to spread, but not pasty.

After a few more minutes, remove from the heat and while the liver cools, separate 2 eggs (save the whites for a frittata) and mix the yolks with about a tablespoon of good wine vinegar (like Katz Orleans method Sparkling Wine). Stir the yolks into the liver, sprinkle in flor de sal to taste, and eat on cook crackers or bread.

[Blether]

Any chance of sneaking a peek at the luxury pork liver pate recipe? Do you make your own pork liver sausage for it, or use a commercially-made product?

Typing's a chore, but funnily enough that recipe lives in the endpapers of the said Complete Cookery Course, which is just on the shelf by my desk here:

Thank Audrey, whose surname actually ends -ie. Oops. One could surely use home-made liver sausage; even here in Japan I've found one that works (Nisshin World Deli). Of course it needs to be the soft, spreading type.

ETA: oh yeah, start with 1tsp curry powder and adjust from there.

ETA2: and the Philly needs to be room temp - from the fridge it's hard/impossible to mix properly.

(Boring local detail: In truth I buy that fairly often and have it by itself on toast &c - they want more than 4 bucks 50

for a half pound (well, 200g) of Philly round here, don't they ? If I was going to Costco more often it'd be more practical. They have a good 500g cream cheese for, what, 7 bucks ?)

Edited February 27, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Ann_T]

Is that jelly on top, rather than clarified butter, Ann_T ? How did you make the flowers ?

Blether, The pate is topped with an aspic and the stems were made with blanched green onion and the flowers from tomato skin.

Ann

[Chris Amirault]

So it would seem that one can either add an egg or two or a boatload of butter to get the right consistency. Makes me wonder what sorts of other emulsifying ingredients could be used....

What does MC have in it for pate? I am sure Nathan and crew experimented with other emulsifiers.

Good question. I'll check when the book gets back from its Montreal vacation.

[judiu]

Kahn's Braunschweiger ® has a recipe for a "Bavarian Party Dip" on the back of the label; it's pretty good! Saute 1/2 c. minced onion (doesn't say what type of fat, or how much) for 10 min. or so, drain and reserve. Mix meat with 3 oz. cream cheese until smooth. Mix in reserved onion and 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper. EASY!

[janeer]

No eggs for me, but lotsa butter, and I like currants in mine, soaked in the cognac.

[prasantrin]

@Blether--thanks! I'll have to see what kind of pork liver sausages I can find. I've never seen them in markets, but I've never really looked for them, either. But if all else fails, I can always make my own!

eta--are pork liver sausages just liverwurst? I can get that no problem!

Edited February 28, 2011 by prasantrin (log)

[Blether]

eta--are pork liver sausages just liverwurst? I can get that no problem!

Nada. Like it says on the, uh, tin, liver sausage / liverwurst, the soft, spreadable kind. Not the slicing or rough-minced ones.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Blether (log)

[prasantrin]

eta--are pork liver sausages just liverwurst? I can get that no problem!

Nada. Like it says on the, uh, tin, liver sausage / liverwurst, the soft, spreadable kind. Not the slicing or rough-minced ones.

Like the Underwood kind with the devil on the label? I can get that, too!