Chicken Liver Pate, Rye Cracker
As seen on TV
Which Show?
Who made this dish?
Sieger went cold with a chicken liver pate built around rye, one of his Appalachian ingredients, plus smoked bacon, ham hocks, onions, livers and a good amount of brown butter. Rather than the classic oven water-bath method, he cooked it over a double boiler to 135 degrees and set it with gelatin, a technique he said sets perfectly every time, then piped it from a pastry bag. He served it with a rustic rye-and-sorghum cracker and a salad of pickled watermelon rind, greasy beans in the style of dilly beans, and pickled coriander. Cooking outdoors in the heat, the mousse softened in the warm piping bag. Sieger was eliminated.
The judges applauded the concept and the courage to highlight these ingredients, and said the liver had great flavor with good minerality.
But the texture failed: {Judge}: "It's wet. But unfortunately, the beans and the stuff on top was also wet, and then I just went wet into wet, and it just is no longer appetizing." They felt the mousse should have been firm like soft butter and instead came out soupy and runny, worsened by the warm hands on the piping bag, the brown butter, and the liquid from the dilly bean relish on top.
{Judge}: "The texture was completely off-putting. I took like two bites of it and that was it for me." The cracker was noted as a little dry and chewy. It was the dish that sent him home.
