This venison liver pâté recipe is so quick and easy, and is such a great way to put a fresh deer liver to good use. There are options included below for either a smooth or a coarse version to suit your preference.
Venison pâté recipe: Coarse or smooth?
Which do you prefer? A coarse or a smooth pâté?
Many years back, I ordered pâté as a starter in a restaurant. I was horrified when a big slice of terrine appeared.
It was filled with lumps of different coloured and textured meat.
And whilst my now self would probably have loved it. My younger self was totally freaked out by the non-smooth consistency of this so-called ‘pâté’.
Two game pâté recipes for the ‘price’ of one!
The initial stages of the recipe below will provide you with a slightly coarse venison liver pâté.
In case your views on pâté are the same as mine were back then, I’ve included simple instructions in this recipe to make it the smoothest pâté possible.
In fact, it’s so smooth and creamy that you’ll be hard pushed to go back to buying ready-made pâté again.
How do you make venison liver pâté?
Keep reading as the full recipe is below.
However, in case this is the first time you’ve ever made a venison pâté yourself, or indeed tried any game pâté recipe at home. Here are some handy hints to make your first liver pâté making session a positive one.
How to source venison liver
Source your venison liver from a decent butcher.
Being offal you want to know that it is super fresh.
On the other hand if you shoot, you may be used to processing a large amount of venison at one time. If so, why not try this this slow cooker venison in cider, or this braised venison recipe?
Is venison liver bitter?
There is definitely more bitterness in venison liver than in, for example, chicken or duck liver.
One way to combat this is to soak it for 24 hours in milk before cooking. Or, as one of the commenters have discussed below, coke!
Then simply drain, and carry on with the recipe.
What should you remove from liver to prepare it for making pâté?
Interestingly, deer don’t have gall bladders so this won’t need removing from the liver before cooking.
I do however like to cut away any bits of tendon or tough membranes, leaving only the shiny, dark red liver behind.
However, if you’re following the instructions for a smooth pâté there’s no need to do this as the sieve will catch all those bits.
Using other livers to make pâté
You can swap out pretty much any animal liver for this recipe.
As could likely be expected with game, venison liver has quite a strong flavour. Whereas duck, chicken and pork liver are all very mild in comparison.
I personally find that lamb liver pâté sits somewhere in between and has a lovely sweetness to it.
Liver pâté with brandy, port or other alcohol
You can add a dash of alcohol to a liver pâté recipe if you fancy it.
Traditionally, a port or calvados would be used. But if you get into making regular batches of homemade liver pâté, do shake it up a bit and try something new.
Why not try a dash of brandy, whisky or rum?
If you find a new favourite, please let us know in the comments below!
How do you make a smooth liver pâté?
The magic key to moving from a venison liver pâté that is a little coarse in texture to a smooth a creamy version is… your kitchen sieve!
Once your pâté has been through the food processor it will still be a little ‘grainy’. To rectify this, simply scoop the pâté into a sieve that is suspended over a bowl.
Use the back of a soup spoon, a ladle or silicone spatula to push the pâté through the holes.
Any ‘bits’ will be trapped in the sieve. Whilst the pâté that falls through will be so silky smooth.
The bits that remain in the sieve can be added to any stock pot or casserole. We want to ensure that you don’t waste any of that lovely flavour!
You can then decant the pâté into clean jars or serving dishes.
Allow the pâté to cool fully before covering with a lid or cling film, then refrigerate. Voila!
How do you make a coarse liver pâté?
A coarse, or chunky liver pâté has small pieces of meat that haven’t been blended together.
There are two ways to do this.
- Either remove some of the meat after cooking, but before blending, and mix it back in at the end.
- Pulse the pâté in the food processor, and stop before you have a smooth consistency.
I recommend you play around with the two different styles to find your favourite pâté texture.
It is worth noting that as a coarse pâté won’t be sieved at the end, you must be scrupulous in trimming your liver, and removing any bits that may be chewy.
This includes all membranes, tubes, tendons or anything that doesn’t look like the shiny raw liver.
And now on to the full recipe.
Depending where you are in the world, you may like to toggle between the UK measurements, and the US measurements. The little button to do this is within the recipe card below.
If you give this, or any of my recipes a go, I’d love to see your results! Feel free to tag me in any pics you share online – you can find me pretty much everywhere as @hedgecomber.
- 60 g butter
- 1 onion - finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic - minced
- 450 g venison liver - cleaned, tough membranes removed
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp mixed herbs - sage or thyme are perfect
- 60 ml port - or Calvados
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley
Preheat a large frying pan.
Heat a little of the weighed out butter, and sauté the onion until soft and translucent (do not let brown).
Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
Meanwhile, use a sharp knife to cut away any tough membranes from the liver.
Add the liver, bay leaves, black pepper, herbs and port and cook until the meat is still a little pink in the middle and most of the liquid has evaporated.
Remove the bay leaves and discard.
Tip the mixture into a food processor along with the rest of the butter and the parsley.
Blitz until smooth.
- Taste, adding more butter if you find the taste too strong, or salt/pepper as necessary
Scoop out into your serving bowl, cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge
Scoop the blended pâté into a clean kitchen sieve.
Place it over a mixing bowl, and use a soup spoon or silicone spatula to press the pâté through the sieve into the bowl below.
When you have pushed it all through, use a clean spoon to scrape the finished pâté from the underneath of the sieve and place into a serving bowl.
FREEZING: The pâté can be frozen really well. Just decant into ramekins (containing as much as you would eat within a day or two) cover well and freeze. Once thawed, keep refrigerated and eat within a maximum of 48 hours.
Fiona Maclean says
The last time I tasted venison liver it was in a restaurant called ‘the shed’. I am pretty sure they had soaked it in milk for 24 hours to help make it milder. It was actually very nice, like slightly gamey chicken liver. Might be worth trying that?
Jane Sarchet says
Great point Fiona, thanks for reminding me. I’ll go and add that on to the recipe for anyone else that wants to make it :)
Janie x
Ursula Beitter says
Adding more butter and a shot of cognac also mitigates what some consider a gamey taste. Add the cognac before serving.
Ursula
Natalya says
This is what I remember they were doing back in my former home in Belarus ( pretty sure it is a Russian thing too). Soaking livers in milk. I understand for beef liver it tenderized it. I will definitely add the step, thank you for reminding me. :)
Tammy/Our Neck of the Woods says
As you know, I am a vegetarian, but I am happy to see that you made good use of the deer! I’m glad you were able to pick it up and it wasn’t wasted!
Jane Sarchet says
Thanks Tammy, it was a bit of a treat!
Janie x
MT says
So do you add the meat in step 3? It doesn’t say, just to cook until the meat is tender.
Jane Sarchet says
MT, thank you so much for pointing out the error in this recipe – it’s all fixed now & I much appreciate you taking the time to let me know (and you’re right, add it in step 3 ;) )
Jane x
Patrick. says
I find it always wise to slow cook venison or hare in water untill tender. Discard liquid.then start again with prevesiously recipe.
James hoffin says
I marinated the roe liver in coco cola for two days and then proceeded to use your recipe it takes the gamey taste away leaving it sweet to the taste
Jane Sarchet says
James, that’s real interesting. Thanks for letting me know :)
Karl says
Lacking a food processor, I looked around and spotted my grinder, all ready to do some ground venison and sausage. One pass through the coarse plate and one through the fine. Worked perfectly!
Jane Sarchet says
That’s awesome Karl, hope you loved the pate :)
Jane x
Roberta says
A friend of my daughter’s gifted us a venison liver, heart and kidney. Could the kidney and heart be included in the pate? I have zero experience cooking venison, so this will be my first adventure. During grade school in Edinburgh my daughter often purchased venison liver at the farmers market for her dinner.
Jane Sarchet says
Hi Roberta, I have used the kidney and heart from poultry in pates before and it was good.
However, I’ve never tried with venison. Would you let us know how it turns out if you give it a go?
Jane x
tania brassey says
Thank you for that easy recipe. Yes, my venison provider suggested I soak the liver in milk- to take any bitterness off- and that’s what I’m doing! This is a highly nutrcious pate-full of goodness.
Jane Sarchet says
Agreed, and so delicious too! Enjoy Tania!
Janie x
Emma says
Thank you! This was really good, the best pate recipe I’ve tried yet!
Jane Sarchet says
That’s awesome Emma, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Jane x
Natalya says
Jane, thank you for amazing recipe!! :)
Jane Sarchet says
My pleasure! So glad you enjoyed it :)
Jane x
Randi says
Hi. My sons brought me a beautiful deer liver and I love pate. My question is. Can I freeze this after making it or should I freeze the raw liver and make small batches. Thank you
Jane Sarchet says
Yes, absolutely! Get everything chilled as soon possible after making, wrap well in cling film/plastic wrap (or for more protection you can use a vacuum sealer), and get in the freezer! Simply defrist overnight in the fridge and enjoy/
Jane x
Krysten says
how long will this keep in the fridge before i’d need to move it to the freezer?
Jane Sarchet says
If you’re planning to freeze it I would chill overnight (or for 8 hours) and get it in the freezer asap after that.
Jane x
Arthur says
Thank you, a very good recipe indeed. Also made it with 50% heart/liver. A thicker consistency but a little more butter/port solved that. Very tasty. Need to make sure liver and heart trimmed of all bits of sinew etc.
Arthur
Jane Sarchet says
Arthur, that’s fantastic news! I’m glad you enjoyed it, and that you used the hearts too.
Jane x
D&L says
One way to make the pate is also to mix the sieved paste with chunks of meat (heart). It allows for more texture, while the sieving process eliminates all the remaining membranes. Everything that might still have bits of membranes gets ground.
I had trouble pushing the paste through my sieve, but as soon as I started scraping the sieve underneath it work a lot better. It wasn’t obvious to me at first.
A remark: don’t look for a gall bladder on a deer liver, they don’t have one. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallbladder).
Jane Sarchet says
Wow D&L, you just blew my mind re the gall bladder – off to read the link you sent!
Great idea also using the heart in the recipe, it would certainly bulk it out whilst adding a tonne of nutrition.
Happy new year to you :)
Jane x
Chris says
I just made this last night with a large liver from a buck I had taken last week.
This was absolutely fantastic. I canned and froze the smooth option to be used over Christmas and we saved the strained out option to enjoy now.
I substituted apple cider for the liquid and it seemed to add a touch of autumn sweetness to this earthy dish!
Definitely will save these in the future.
Thank you for a great recipe
Jane Sarchet says
Brilliant! So glad you enjoyed it Chris!
Janie x
L OUISE MAL says
I have 3 fresh Roe Doe livers Weighing about 1lb each. Can I assume that I simply need to multiply quantity of all ingredients x 3 ? Or will I not need as much port and butter as this ?
Jane Sarchet says
Hi Louise, lucky you! Yes, you can double, triple or more the recipe as many times as you like. Enjoy!
Janie x