madbaker | Head cheese: pate pate.

This week's Resolution Recipe: Pate Maison.

2 lbs chicken livers
4 oz unsalted butter
1 oz onion, diced (I also added several cloves of garlic.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 1/2 oz brandy
4 oz cream
4 oz bacon (I used house-cured, of course)

Sweat the livers in a heavy skillet in 2 oz butter (I used less). After three minutes, add the onion and garlic, salt and pepper. Cook until the livers are just off-pink. Set aside and hold warm. Line a 1.25 quart mold with a single layer of the bacon slices and chill. (I used a standard bread loaf pan, which was about the right size.) Puree the liver and onion mixture in a food processor.

Gently warm the remaining butter. Add to the livers with the brandy and cream; mix again to assure uniformity. Pour into the well-chilled mold and place in a water bath reaching to 1" from the top of the mold. Bake 45-60 minutes at 325 until the pate sets. Shake gently to observe the texture; a metal cake tester should come out clean. Remove from the oven and water bath. Cover and chill for at least 12 hours.

Unmold, plate, and garnish for presentation.

What worked: relatively simple and elegant. I used hippy chicken livers and this tasted like good, high-quality commercial pate.

What didn't: this is a half recipe and I mistakenly did not halve the brandy. The pate was too wet and took some extra time to bake; then it did not unmold as easily as I would have liked.

Will I make it again? Yes. While the smoothness is nice, I think throwing in a few chopped truffles and some green onion for texture/flavor variation would improve it.

In other Saluminati news, I cut down the fermented pork sausages that have been hanging in our oubliette for a couple weeks. They didn't ferment sufficiently, I suspect, but the smoking and drying went well. The Bactoferm good mold worked brilliantly - I did a couple dips before hanging, and they all had thick powdery coats when I took them down.

What I'm reading: Michael Z Williamson, Do Unto Others