Not My Mother's Chicken Liver Not Pate

Growing up, whenever we had roast chicken for dinner or whenever there was a holiday meal festive enough to call for hors d'oeures, my mother would make what she called "chicken liver pate", basically a spread made from cooked chicken livers eaten on crackers.

Our local supermarket offers a 20 oz. container for chicken livers for $1.58.  Seems cheap at the price so I recently tried to duplicate my mothers recipe from what I remembered seeing her do (I thought) and what I remembered as the outcome.

I took some of the product over to Mom's to share before dinner one night and in the ensuing discussion found out that what I thought I remembered her doing was not what she remembered and what I had made was not really what she had made.  So, this is Not My Mother's.  Then, before sitting down to write this I looked up the definition of pate in a couple of cookbooks and discovered that it is very different from this so it's not pate either.  Hence the name.  In any event, I think this is pretty good and like to keep some on hand to spread on a cracker whenever hunger strikes.

I take a 20 oz container of chicken livers and rinse well (they tend to be pretty bloody as received), then boil them in water for 8-10 minutes or until done (brown color inside).  Transfer the cooked livers to a stainless steel bowl and mash with fork, adding ~1 t. of mayo and, to taste, a splash of Worchestshire Sauce, a splash of Marsala, salt, pepper ground mustard and dried thyme.  The thyme works very well and is my contribution to this flavor ensemble.  There is obviously a huge opportunity for experimentation and further seasoning development in this basic recipe.