🖨️ Print post
If you want to know how to make beef liver taste like an amazing delicacy, keep reading. Beef liver has a fairly strong flavor that is not appreciated by most modern humans but it happens to be one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. Our ancestors, in almost every culture around the world, favored the organ meats from a variety of different animals. They inherently knew that the organ meats were full of powerful nutrition that would help keep them strong both physically and mentally.
Pairing pastured beef liver with lots of organic grass-fed butter gives us one of the most delicious, healthy and satisfying foods we can eat – pâté.
Ingredients
- 1 pound pastured beef liver
- 1 cup tallow, lard, lamb or duck fat
- 2 large shallots
- 3 cloves fresh garlic
- 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary
- 2 Tbsp fresh thyme
- 1 tsp unrefined sea salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup cognac, wine or stock
- 1 cup pastured butter
Instructions
- Slice the beef liver into 5-8 thin slices.
- Add the tallow to a large frying pan and melt it over low heat.
- Dice the shallots and add them to the tallow. Raise the temperature to medium-low and cook the shallots slowly.
- Dice the garlic and add it to the pan. Stir this mixture often as you prepare the herbs.
- Mince the fresh herbs and add them to the pan with the shallots and garlic. Cook these four ingredients together just until the shallots start to caramelize.
- Using a small wire strainer and small bowl, pour off as much fat as possible and reserve it for later.
- Return the pan to the heat and increase the temperature to medium-high. Add the sliced liver to the pan, salt and pepper each piece and sauté for 1-2 minutes per side.
- Deglaze the pan with the cognac/wine/stock and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Remove the contents of the pan to a dish and cool it to room temperature.
- Remove the butter from the refrigerator and slice into 16 tablespoon portions.
- Put the cooled liver in the food processor and pulse it until finely minced.
- Add the butter one to two chunks at a time with the food processor running. Once the butter is incorporated, the pâté should be fairly smooth. If not, continue to purée, but only slightly. Too much agitation can break the pâté causing the butter to separate. Taste the pâté and add additional salt as needed.
- Spoon the pâté into little jars, or other ceramic or glass containers. Smooth the top with the back of the spoon.
- Ladle the melted herb-infused tallow over each jar creating a seal. Sprinkle the tops with a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme.
- Cover the containers with airtight lids and store them in the refrigerator for up to one week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
We have a dairy allergy in my house. Is there an alternative for this recipe please?
I would use ghee instead of butter.
Hi Melissa,
If you don’t want to use ghee, you can omit the butter altogether adding a little more beef tallow, lard, duck fat, or even coconut oil in its place. Just start slowly, you may find you don’t need much!
Hope that helps!
Courtney
Can you recommend a tallow/lard/lamb fat substitution for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Wally!
Ghee, Butter, Clarified butter, Duck fat, even Coconut oil could be substituted Hope that helps!
Courtney
Can you estimate the finished volume? (I.e. – wondering how many pint jars this would make). Thank you. Sounds delicious!
Hi Jo,
It should be about 6 cups. The original recipe has more info as well! https://www.butterforall.com/traditional-cooking-traditional-living/buttery-beef-liver-pate-with-rosemary-and-thyme/
Hope that helps,
Courtney
What kind of crackers are those? Or what kind do you recommend? I’ve never had pate before but this recipe looks good and I want to try it. Thanks!
Just made this today…it was sooo good!!! Best beef liver paté I’ve had, smooth and creamy, with a good flavor. My 20month old devoured his sandwiches and he does NOT like liver at all.
We just made this and it was delicious. Definitely making again.
When you deglaze the pan do you leave the beef liver in the pan? Or Remove it? Lost between steps 7 and 8.
Fantastic! The best pate I’ve made. Two notes that may help others like me, who don’t find liver very palatable, but want to include it in their diet: 1) I added bacon, taking from another WAPF recipe I’ve made before. I used the bacon fat left from cooking as part of the tallow measurement. 2) I recently learned if you soak the liver in milk (I used raw) overnight it will help to decrease the mineral flavor of the liver. My first time doing it was for this recipe and it made a huge difference. This will now be my go to recipe for pate!