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Chicken Livers En Brochette
Remove the galls from twelve fine, fresh chicken livers and neatly wipe them all over with a clean towel. Cut each liver in half and place on a plate. Season with half teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper; turn them well in the seasoning. Cut twenty-four small, thin pieces lean bacon of about the same size as the livers; then arrange on six skewers "brochettes" alternately. Pour a tablespoon oil on the same plate as the seasoning; roll the livers in the oil, then lightly roll in fresh bread crumbs; place on a double broiler and broil on a brisk fire for eight minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish over six freshly prepared toasts. Spread a little maitre d'hotel butter over them and serve.
A hotel-style savoury that survives almost unchanged; the only real problem is the cooking time, which belongs to an era of unpredictable coal broilers.
- Eight minutes a side is far too longSixteen minutes over high heat turns chicken livers grey and chalky. Give them 3 to 4 minutes a side over a hot fire — enough for the bacon to crisp and the livers to reach 165F, at which point they are just firm. Chicken liver is a common carrier of Campylobacter, so do not stop short of that; simply do not go past it.
- The gallsLivers sold today are trimmed and the gallbladder removed at the processor. Still check each lobe for any green-stained patch and cut it away — bile is intensely bitter and will ruin the skewer it sits on.
- QuantityTwelve chicken livers is roughly 1 lb, giving six skewers as written; serve as a first course or a light supper for six, or as a main for three.
- "Double broiler"This is a hinged wire grill — two grids that clamp the food between them so a whole rack of skewers turns in one motion. A fish basket does the same job, or lay the skewers on a preheated grill pan or ridged pan and turn once.
- "Brisk fire"Hot direct heat: coals with a good glow, or a broiler element preheated 10 minutes with the pan close beneath it.
- Bacon and crumbsCut the bacon thin so it renders in the short cooking time; thick supermarket rashers will still be flabby when the livers are done. Fresh crumbs scorch quickly — press them on lightly and watch the second side rather than trusting the clock.
- Maitre d'hotel butterSoftened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper — about 4 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon parsley and 2 teaspoons juice is enough for six portions. Roll in paper and chill so it can be sliced onto the hot livers.
- SkewersWooden skewers need a 30-minute soak or they will char under this heat; flat metal skewers stop the livers spinning when you turn the grill.
En brochette is simply French for "on a skewer," and this preparation — liver or kidney alternated with bacon, crumbed, broiled and finished with a compound butter — was standard equipment in American hotel and club kitchens at the turn of the twentieth century, where it appeared on breakfast cards and as a savoury at the close of dinner. Alessandro Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, wrote for exactly that world, and the page is often attributed to him: the instruction to arrange six skewers over six toasts, each portion identical, is restaurant thinking rather than family thinking. Chicken livers were also cheap and abundant in an age when whole birds were bought and drawn at home, so a book that ranged across national cuisines could file this among its economical dishes without apology. The maitre d'hotel butter that finishes it is the plainest of the French compound butters, and remains the house dressing for anything grilled quickly over a hot fire.