45 days chilled with the butter cap intact. Four days once broken.
On the palate
Silk. Sweet at the front from the madeira, savoury and long at the back.
Where this dish comes from
Potting under butter is the English preserving tradition par excellence, documented in Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery (1747) and older still in manuscript receipt books. Fish, game, cheese and liver were all potted; the butter cap excluded air and the pot went into the cold larder.
The French parfait — literally 'perfect' — is the refined descendant: livers emulsified with butter and cream into something closer to a custard than a pâté. The two traditions meet in this jar.
Marco Pierre White's chicken liver parfait at Harveys is the modern British benchmark, and Simon Hopkinson's version at Bibendum is its closest rival. In Paris the standard is set by Le Comptoir du Relais; in New York, by Gramercy Tavern's long-running bar menu.
How we make it
The overnight milk soak is the step almost everyone skips, and it is the difference between a parfait that tastes of iron and one that tastes of butter and wine.
62°C is not approximate. At 63°C the emulsion breaks and you get grainy liver in a pool of fat; there is no rescuing it, so we cook on a calibrated probe and pull at temperature, not at time.
Water-bath emulsion, butter-sealed
Overnight soak · 90 minutes cook
01Livers soaked overnight in milk to draw out bitterness, then trimmed vein by vein.
02Blended warm with reduced madeira, port and shallot, and emulsified with butter.
03Cooked in a water bath to exactly 62°C — one degree over and it splits.
04Passed through a fine sieve twice, jarred, and sealed under clarified butter.
Cold, from the fridge, on hot brioche. Break the butter cap at the table.
THE INGREDIENT LEDGER
Every defining ingredient, named: who grew or caught it, where, when it was taken, what it has meant to the people who kept it, and what it does for you.
Pastured chicken livers
Weekly, autumn 2025
Farm / fishery
A small flock on rotating pasture, no confinement
Region
Sonoma County, California
History
Potted liver is medieval English and French alike — the smoothest version, whipped with butter and fortified wine, is a nineteenth-century refinement.
Why it is good for you
One of the most nutrient-dense foods on earth: vitamin A, B12, folate and heme iron in a single spoonful.
Nutrition, roughly
Per 50 g: 84 kcal · 12 g protein · 5,000 IU vitamin A · 8 µg B12.
Madeira & cultured butter
Butter churned weekly, 2025
Farm / fishery
Five-year Madeira; small-creamery butter
Region
Madeira, Portugal · Normandy
History
Madeira was baked by tropical crossings in barrel and became the fortified wine that survived any cellar — and the classic liver seasoning.
Why it is good for you
Butter carries the liver's fat-soluble vitamins into you; the wine's acidity cuts the richness.
Nutrition, roughly
Per tablespoon butter: 102 kcal · 12 g fat.
Nutrition figures are typical values for the ingredient itself and are given as a guide, not as a dietary claim. Harvest dates refer to the batch printed on your lid.
