When I took a buck this year, I kept the liver, rather than leaving it in the gut pile for the coyotes. My family's not big on organ meats, but I had seen some recipes that called for deer liver and I wanted to try it.

Here's the basic recipe I followed yesterday to make venison liver pate:

1 lb deer liver, (I used the large lobe) diced
8 oz butter cut up in small chunks
1/2 c minced onion
2 eggs, hard boiled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 T mayonnaise
2 T bacon fat
2 t Frank's hot sauce

Saute the liver in the bacon fat until it's browned outside, but still reddish on the inside. Remove to a large bowl using a slotted spoon. Using a spatula, blend the liver and all the ingredients as well as you can. Scoop the mixture into a food processor (you might have to do more than one batch). Blend until smooth.

I had to pick out a few chunks that my food processor refused to chop up.

As you can see from the ingredients, this dish is not cardiologist-approved. But spread on crackers, it is quite tasty, much like liverwurst. The first batch I made, I left out the hot sauce. I found the resulting product to be too bland. The hot sauce doesn't make the pate spicy, it just gives it a little more flavor, so don't leave it out.

Any ideas for improvement? This liver was in the freezer for about 8 weeks. I think using the liver fresh from the kill might be good.

Anyway, I really felt like this was the ultimate in cooking from scratch.