Due to a shortage of ingredients I made pate using odd proportions of ingredients and my pate hasn't set at all. Can anyone suggest ways to help it set? Would heating it up and evaporating off some moisture work?
Butter and cream are what I lacked... I used mascarpone instead thinking that would do as the substitute saturated fat. I don't have any exact measurements but probably around 300g of chicken liver, 1 onion, maybe 150-200g of mascarpone, and a good glug of marsala.
Assuming it’s chicken liver pate, have you tried adding butter, cream or other saturated fat? This can thicken and so firm pate quite well. Or you could use some kind of meal - oat flour or matzo meal, breadcrumbs etc that would absorb the liquid. Difficult to know without the recipe - many use mushrooms but I find livers, leeks and herbs and spice plus some good sherry or port and a tablespoon or so of melted butter /and / or thick cream makes lovely pate which spread very easily and thickens nicely in the fridge. It freezes well too.
The butter content helps solidify a pate once well refrigerated. Think about the difference in consistency between butter that’s been in the refrigerator overnight, and some that’s been left at room temperature. The more ‘liquid’ content in my recipe, the more butter I add, and remember any veg or mushrooms added contain a lot of liquid when cooked too.
If it still looks too sloppy (it shouldn’t be runny or drop off a spoon) then I add breadcrumbs, so if you’re lacking butter, that’s a good (and probably healthier) alternative and a good way to use up bread that’s past it’s best...
