Cooking paté

[Salmo]

I'm making a liver paté for Christmas lunch starter & I want to cook it in individual ramekins, in order to get a good presentation.
The recipe calls for the entire amount to be filled into a 1Lt bread type tin & cooked in a bain marie at 170C for about 90mins.
How long will the bain marie method take with individual ramekins of about 4" diameter ?
Cheers

[RodinBangkok]

Impossible to judge this by time, the best and frankly only way is to measure the internal temp. Also 170 seems very high to me. You may find it comes out grainy when cooked to that high a temperature.

[Salmo]

Impossible to judge this by time, the best and frankly only way is to measure the internal temp. Also 170 seems very high to me. You may find it comes out grainy when cooked to that high a temperature.

The problem I have is the amount of conflicting advice given on the net.
Before asking here I checked various cooking sites and was advised to cook at :130C,150C,160C &170C (don't know what they have against 140C )
Internal temperature recommendations were 59C 63C 68C & 75C

As I intend to cook & serve in individual ramekins being grainy may not be a problem,as it won't be sliced,just scooped out & spread on toast.
I obviously don't want to poison anybody,especialy at Christmas.

[tomwal]

FWIW . I always find pan cooking the livers (chicken) and other ingredients the best way, I have more control over temp, flavour, it also allows you to taste the livers as they are being cooked, etc, once cooked I blend until smooth in food processor then pour into ramekins cooled then covered with melted butter, Iv'e been doing it this way for about 15 years and never poisoned anyone.

Wal

[RodinBangkok]

It is very difficult to advise on the internal temp, as it depends on so many factors. IMHO most of the conflicting info comes from the buffer everyone seems to add to cooking temps these days. If everyone followed the recommended cooking temps from the states there would not be a moist piece of chicken served there. Some Chef's I know for a fact may say for legal reasons to use a higher temp than they really use in their own kitchens. In their defense it is probably safer that way, especially in the states where people sue people for no reason. If you know your ingredients, and where they come from it gives you a notch up on using lower and more traditional cooking temps. If your using meats that have been processed, shipped frozen, then perhaps processed or repackaged again...IE big box type store meats, then I'd be more conservative about temps, as you may have no idea where those meats came from. Anytime I'm doing a new recipe for a crowd I'll test it to make sure I have the procedure down. Takes more time, but its well worth it.

I'd make a test batch, and make sure you use internal temp to cook them, pull one Ramikin at a lower temp and test it, then another at 10 degree higher, and so on. This will get you where you think you need to be. As far as max temp...well thats up to you is'nt it, I can't or won't try and convince you not to use 170, just giving you a heads up on reduced quality as the temps get higher.

The most important thing is to cook by internal temp, not time.

I'm a traditional poach pate person, so I would not cook anything ahead then put in ramekins, not really a good pate then IMHO.

Hope that helps, the best advise is to use very fresh ingredients, from a known source, then you can be more confident on your cooking temps.

[wheels]

The most important thing is to cook by internal temp, not time.

That would also be my advice. You can also 'hold' the pâté at a lower temp for a period of time to ensure that it's fully safe - for example, 65°C for 10 mins. See:

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/csctcooking.pdf

HTH

Phil

[Salmo]

Thanks chaps
I hope to do a trial run tomorrow,so will let you know how it goes.

Cheers
Mel

[Salmo]

Taking into account the advice , tried cooking some at 130C with the intension of holding them at 65C for the prescribed time.
Perhaps it's just my oven but it seemed to be taking forever so I eventualy increasedthe oven temp to 150C,which was obviously better.
I then found holding at the required temperature to be difficult--I just removed them from the oven,still in the dish of water,but the temp started to drop.
So I settled on taking them to 75C & calling it a day.
Not sure about the terminology here,but when cool they were a bit "loose"
that is they didn't hold together as a solid piece ,as paté from a shop would.
Followed the procedure for the main event but this time I have pressed them with weights (a lot of fat came out) and have left them in the fridge for tomorrow.
I was pleased with the flavour of the trial batch & I think they will go down well tomorrow,but given the amount of work involved I doubt it is something I will be doing again in a hurry.
Thanks for the advise & I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.
Cheers
Mel