I co-taught a Thanksgiving dinner cooking class today. A question came up about chicken liver pâté. The student had been using a recipe with butter. I have always made my pâté without butter using the method I learned in France and from my French chef husband. It's really very simple- the chicken livers are processed into a puree raw in a food processor with whatever seasonings that a recipe calls for and packed into a terrine for cooking in a bain marie (hot water bath).
Curious about chicken liver pâté with butter I googled and found numerous recipes for cooking the livers in butter and then pureeing the livers. The student told me that her chicken liver pâté always came out too hard and was unspreadable even after being left at room temperature for an hour or so. I explained to her that she should slice this kind of pâté and that the butter solidifies in the refrigerator.
At some point I'll try making a buttered chicken liver pâté but I suspect that the method I use yields a more delicate and refined finished product, one that can be sliced or spread. And my method is certainly less fatty with a purer liver flavor.
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