Instructions: For basting sauce: Heat butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add sherry, salt and pepper and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add tarragon. Cover and set aside.

For pate: Chill a small loaf pan. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add livers, shallot and Cognac, and saute until livers are cook but still pink inside. Stir in Worcestershire. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let cool.

Transfer mixture to processor blender. Add cream cheese and mix until smooth. Pack into chilled pan. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

For surprise: Place 1 sprig of parsley, 2 mushrooms and 3 pieces pancetta or bacon on each bread strip. Set aside.

For sauce: Cook pancetta in small skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Do not clean the skillet; set aside.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in Dutch oven or very large skillet over medium-low heat.. Add oil and mix well. Add mushrooms and saute until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add shallot and saute several minutes longer. Blend in pancetta, livers, tarragon and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

For croutons: Toast bread lightly. Set on rack and brush with clarified butter while still warm. Set croutons aside.

Rinse birds and pat dry. Rub cavity of each with 1 teaspoon butter. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon shallot and 1/4 teaspoon tarragon in each. Season cavities with salt and pepper. Sprinkle additional pinch of tarragon over each bird and place 1 surprise in each cavity. Truss birds.

Prepare barbecue equipped with cover or preheat oven to 350 F. Brush roasting pan with some of basting sauce. Rub underside of birds with clarified butter and set in pan. Brush skins with some of basting sauce. Lay 1 slice pancetta over breast of each bird.

Roast in covered barbecue or oven 5 minutes. Spoon some of basting sauce over tops of birds. Continue roasting, basting every 10 minutes until birds test done and juices run clear, about 50 to 55 minutes for barbecue or 1 hour for oven (cover loosely with small pieces of foil if birds brown too quickly). Transfer birds to a heated platter. Discard pancetta and remove strings or pins. Keep birds warm in low oven with door ajar to prevent drying.

Boil sherry in small saucepan until reduced to 1/2 cup. Remove from heat.

Reheat mushroom-pancetta sauce. Add 3 tablespoons of the sherry. Taste and add remaining sherry if necessary (to mellow the liver flavor). Deglaze pan used to saute pancetta with 1/4 cup chicken stock. Add to sauce. Pour off fat from roasting pan. Add any browned bits clinging to bottom of pan to sauce. Continue cooking until heated through, adding more stock if mixture seems too dry (sauce should be thickened but not soupy).

To serve, arrange croutons on individual heated plates. Top with slice of pate. Set bird on pate and spoon enough mushroom-pancetta sauce over to moisten croutons also. Pass rest of sauce separately.

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