So, I’ve been experimenting for some time on creating pate. I always try to follow a recipe accurately before attempting any changes, this is especially so for food recipes that I am unfamiliar with.

I found a recipe in a relatively old book first published back in 1966 called “500 Recipes: Dinner & Supper Parties” by Marguerite Pattern, a woman who’s had hundreds of books published, and is even having more books published to this day.

On the top corner of this book, there is a print [3/6] which I suppose means the book is the 3rd one in a series of 6, of which I don’t have and I certainly wasn’t around back in 1966 to pick up cooking tips.

The recipe required what I always thought would be good in a pate: livers, garlic, cream and brandy. This particular recipe required the ingredients to be combined raw and then put in a buttered dish and put in an oven to cook. Interesting, considering that when I’ve looked online for a recipe, the recipes have all cooked the ingredients in various stages before combining, blitzing and poured into a dish and left to set in the fridge before being ready to eat.

So far though, I have been having trouble with success of cooking in the oven from raw (sorry Ms Pattern), in fact after the initial first recipe, which I felt lacked a particular richness I was after. I attempted multiples of times to make it with differing changes each time. Version number six still lacked something(s). So then I thought to attempt one of the online finds: 100 Year Old Pate

Result: it’s not bad, it’s definitely getting closer, and it does pack a lot more flavour in and I would recommend it. However, there’s still that little something I’m not getting, but at least it’s less messier than blitzing raw liver (try blitzing without a food processor with a lid).  On a positive note: I’m definitely a few steps closer to the pate in my mind now.