Beef liver pate is a classic appetizer for any time of the year. For many nose-to-tail eating is uncharted territory. However, this is one of my easy keto recipes you don’t want to miss!
I highly recommend beginning your organ meats journey with liver. My A to Z Guide to Liver Pate on Keto and Carnivore Diets covers all the ins and outs of pate making so you can make some today!
Benefits of Eating Organ Meats
Organs are highly concentrated sources of nutrition. For example, the health benefits of liver are almost off the charts!
Because they are still relatively underappreciated, you can usually find them at quite affordable prices (sometimes free!).
There are many options that add variety to your diet.
I am overjoyed to see how many more people embrace the benefits of organ meats now than I did back in 2013 when we started promoting it publicly.
Many butcher shops are now stocking organ meats. Online shops are also responding to the rising demand for organs. Learn where to buy liver near you!
This post may contain affiliate links. Primal Edge Health LLC may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you for any orders made through these links. All thoughts and opinions are our own and we never promote something we wouldn’t use ourselves.
How to Serve a Classic Beef Liver Pate
Like any good dip or pate, you need some dip-ables!
If you follow a keto diet, choose your favorite low-carb veggie stick or cracker. If you do well with carbs, break out the sourdough French bread!
Here are some ideas to get you started.
Serve pate with:
- Just a spoon (my personal favorite)
- Crispy bacon slices
- Fresh slices of cucumber
- Celery sticks (assuming no oxalate sensitivity)
- Baked vegetable chips
- Grilled vegetables
- Other quick and easy low carb, keto snacks
If you prefer cooking without dairy, try this Dairy Free Ox Liver Pate recipe instead.
Or maybe chicken liver is more your style? If so, try this alcohol-free Chicken Liver Pate Recipe (with Carnivore diet option).
Fiber Free aka “Carnivore”
Some folks find they prefer a fiber-free Carnivore Diet. If you are interested in zero-carb carnivore diet recipes following the same directions below but omit the garlic, thyme, and pepper. Serve a la louche (by the spoon), with bacon as a dipper, or on the side of your meat.
If you’re looking for more delicious zero-fiber recipes, you’ll find over 100 recipes made from just the essentials: animal protein and fats in my Carnivore Cookbook!
Browse through this list of Carnivore-Friendly recipes for more ideas from my kitchen that are posted here on the site.
Please note, “Carnivore-Friendly” recipes are those that feature animal-based ingredients with herbs and vegetables as extra flavoring agents but are not a foundational part of the recipe. For zero-fiber, simply remove the herbs and/or veg and stick to the base of animal protein and fats. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below the recipe and I’ll answer asap.
THRIVE with Animal-Based Nutrition!
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Classic Beef Liver Pate
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound beef liver
- 6 tablespoons grass-fed butter divided
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream optional, preferably raw
Instructions
- Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet. Add finely minced garlic and cook on medium-high until translucent, 3-4 minutes.
- Meanwhile, trim the connective tissue off of the liver and slice to thin strips. Add beef liver to pan, increase to high heat. Sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper. Sear liver for 60 seconds on each side.
- Remove liver from heat and let cool, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. While blending/pureeing, add the remaining butter and cream (if using). Add more salt and pepper to taste, if desired.
- Once the mixture is completely smooth, remove from blender and put in ramekins or a glass container and cover tightly. Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight (preferred) to harden and let flavors meld.
- Serve with cucumber, celery, bacon or just a spoon.
Video
Classic Beef Liver Pate by primaledgehealth on Jumprope.
Macros and Nutrition
As featured in 62 Recipes for the Carnivore Diet.
Meet Jessica Haggard
Jessica Haggard is the creator of Primal Edge Health, where she shares simple, nourishing low-carb, keto and carnivore diet recipes. With a focus on from scratch, homemade cooking, animal-based nutrition, and easy DIY beauty and personal care recipes, there’s always something new going on in her kitchen! Jessica will teach you exactly how to thrive with all the best ingredients and enjoy the journey along the way.
She has photographed and authored two best selling ketogenic cookbooks, The Ketogenic Edge Cookbook and The Carnivore Cookbook. Learn more about Jessica…
31 Responses
Karyla Parrish
How many calories per serving?
Jessica Haggard
183 calories
Lula
What a great recipe. We often end up strining the chunky bits by pushing it thru a metal siv. Next time I’ll try trimming first. Thanks.
Phillip Massey
Butter “divided” = Ghee?
Jessica Haggard
Divided refers to using 3 tbsp to cook the liver in and then adding the second 3 tbsp when you blend the pate up. You could also use ghee.
Barbara
Jessica! Thank you for this recipe. I have been looking for a low carb Patè for months but to no avail. thanks for creating one!
Jessica Haggard
My pleasure sweet Barbara! Enjoy xx
Drago
What can I substitute for the butter or ghee? I can’t have any dairy
Jessica Haggard
Duck fat or lard would be great. Tallow may also work but I haven’t tried it
Paul Ritter
Great way to break into nose to tail eating. I recently had whole hogs head I wanted to make into head cheese. I decided to add the beef liver and pig & beef kidneys as well as a bunch of chicken livers I had in the freezer. After cooking it all & picking the bones out I ran everything through the finest grinder plate I had along with bunch of fresh parsley & time from the back yard plus salt pepper & coriander. Then I mixed in some of the hogs head broth & poured it all into loaf pans. After it set I cut it into about 12 one pound blocks & vacuum sealed & froze it. It’s a bit coarser than what you make but I think I’m gonna go the extra step in the food processor next time. THInking about putting next years hogs head in the smoker for a few hours before rendering too. I’ve been going through about a pound a week now. Finding all kinds of great stuff to put it with. All on its own doesn’t suck either
Jessica Haggard
Head cheese is such a cool thing! Thank you for sharing your recipe here, I hope others come along and make it too!
Monica
Hello. I didn’t see in the recipe how long this will keep in the fridge or whether it can be frozen… is there a suggestion on that? ( I could have missed it)
Jessica Haggard
The pate will be fine for 5 days or so, always give a smell check to be sure 😉 I’ve never frozen (it since it always goes fast!) but don’t see why one couldn’t. Should be fine there.
john
I freeze all the time…always good
Jessica Haggard
Great! I’m so glad to hear this! Freezing is a great way to save leftovers and not get overwhelmed with having to eat all the pate at once.
C Conroy
I triple the recipe bc my packages of liver come in about 1.5 lbs, so I freeze the other 2 thirds in separate balls wrapped tight in plastic, but we go through that in less than a month, 1 third a week, so not sure how long it could go. But certainly a couple weeks.
Jessica Haggard
Awesome tip about freezing! I’m glad you are all enjoying it so much!
Haily Alexander
Appreciate you being so complete with your’ nutrition listing’, but where is the ‘serving size’, or am I missing it. ie… 170 calories for ? serving size… one ounce, two Tbs, etc. Thanks.
Jessica Haggard
Serving size is noted in the brown box of the recipe header. The pate serves 6.
Shelley
Hi. Just an FYI, I saw someone had asked about freezing pate and I have. I made single servings with a small ice cream baller, put them on a tray in the freezer, once frozen, I wrapped each one in plastic wrap then put them in a freezer bag. Just take one out to thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter.
Jessica Haggard
Great tip! I love the idea of using an ice cream baller to make individual portions.
Jennifer Mullins
I heard that you have to soak liver in milk before you cook,is this true
Jessica Haggard
Soaking the liver in milk before cooking gives it a more mild flavor. Some people soak in a saltwater brine before pan-frying for this same reason. You may or may not want to do this for sauteeing whole liver. I never soak ground liver.
Lester
Very easy to make and delicious.
Jessica Haggard
Thanks for the feedback Lester! I’m glad this was a hit!
Claudia Brown
I have a dairy allergy and subsituted 4 tbsp of coconut oil instead of both the butter and cream. It was still very delicious. Thanks and Cheers!
Jessica Haggard
Great swap! Thanks for sharing your idea. Duck fat is also a delicious dairy-free substitute.
Lily Boutet
I loved your recipe. It was so simple. It has given me ideas for a lot of different pates. One thing I did was made some unflavored gelatin added black peppercorns on top of my pate ramekins and Herbs de Provence to the others then covered the pate and herbs with the gelatin to preserve them to keep a little longer than 3 days. I guess you can always freeze them too but this would give it a bit more refinement.
Jessica Haggard
How gourmet! I love the idea of preserving them in gelatin. I can’t wait to try that too! Thanks so much for sharing the idea.
Anabela
Omg! I just made the liver pate and its amazing!! Thank you so much for a simple, healthy liver pate. Been trying to find a good one without oils and sugar , extremely hard these days.
Decided to make my own, bought a few books from you and so far, very happy “carnivorish” customer. 😁👍👐
Jessica Haggard
WONDERFUL! Thank you so much for sharing this feedback with me! We have lots of carnivore-friendly recipes to try and material to learn from so I hope we enjoy a friendship together 🙂