We begin with the glory and the raison d’être for this book: the pâté en terrine. In this chapter, we’ll go over everything you need to make expert pâtés of all kinds. We’ll address the tools you need, our Rules to Live By, the general principles of pâté making, and a rough description of the techniques and methods shared by all pâtés. Then we’ll give master recipes for the four fundamental types of pâté forcemeats, or farces: gratin, straight, country, and mousseline.
THE TOOLS YOU WILL NEED
Generally speaking, rillettes and confits don’t require any special tools, but pâtés do. Tools are important to any craft. And keeping your tools in good working order—that is, cleaning them and keeping all blades and dies sharp—is as important as using them properly.
Meat Grinder
The first tool you’ll need for pâté is a grinder—it’s how you turn chunks of meat and fat into paste. If you don’t have one and don’t want to get one, there are several pâté recipes that require only a food processor (see page 22). If you have a butcher whom you trust and who will follow your exact instructions, he or she should be happy to do the grinding as recommended in each recipe. Grinder attachments for standing mixers are available, but after using several of them, we can’t recommend them; they’re not sharp enough and the motors are not strong enough for a clean, distinct grind. (That said, if you have such an attachment, we’d rather you make a pâté than avoid it because of your grinder—so go ahead and use it; just be aware of this caveat.) A standalone grinder is ideal; they start at about $50. The stronger the motor, the better.
A word about the dies and blades: Brian feels that the size of the dies is very important, so we are specific about the sizes. We recommend that chefs preparing these recipes hew to these sizes for the best results. That said, if your machine comes with die sizes different from the ones we specify, use your common sense when following the recipes.
Remember that these blades become dull and need sharpening, so we advise finding a sharpening service near you that can sharpen both blades and dies. Sharp blades for grinding the meat are one of the most important factors in successful pâtés, so we can’t stress enough the importance of starting with sharp blades, caring for them after you’ve used them (washing and drying by hand, storing them securely so they don’t rattle around in a drawer and dull), and sharpening them regularly. This issue is so important to Brian that he has one blade devoted to each die he uses, a practice and expense he recommends to any chef wanting to excel at this craft.
Standing Mixer
This is one of the most valuable appliances in the kitchen. It’s a big-ticket item that’s worth the expense if you cook (and certainly if you bake). In this book, and in the craft of charcuterie generally, we mainly use the paddle attachment to mix country pâtés and rillettes. Mixing has two important functions: to distribute seasonings and garnish evenly and to develop the protein myosin in the meat, which helps bind the pâté. This is best accomplished with a standing mixer, but it can, theoretically, be achieved using a stiff wooden spoon and a lot of elbow grease.
Food Processor
Most kitchens have these, and they are essential for mousselines and straight and gratin pâtés. In the days of Escoffier, fish was pounded by hand and then pressed through a drum sieve to achieve a smooth mousseline. Happily, we no longer have to do this. Today there is really no alternative method to the food processor for those recipes that call for one.
Again, the sharpness of these blades is fundamental to the success of the puree. If you’re still using the processor you got as a wedding gift fifteen years ago, it’s worth buying a new blade for it before making pâtés that require a processor. As with the blades and dies for his grinders, Brian keeps one blade specifically for pureeing meats for pâtés, and another blade for all other food processing.
Tamis/Fine-Mesh Sieve
Some recipes call for the puree to be passed through a sieve, or tamis, to achieve a refined texture. Any fine-mesh sieve will suffice to catch any of the longer strands or connective tissue that haven’t been fully pureed.
Terrine Molds
These are convenient but not absolutely essential. You can, after all, make a pâté by rolling it in plastic wrap to form a log, wrap this tightly in foil, and then poach it. But molds are cool to look at and to serve from, and they have many uses, so we think they are worth the expense. They come in all manner of shapes and sizes. We use the industry standard, Le Creuset’s 1½-quart/1.5-liter lidded terrine mold. Most of the pâté recipes in this book are scaled to fill this size terrine. These terrines will yield approximately 15 appetizer-size portions.
Pâté en Croûte Molds
Molds made specifically for the purpose of cooking pâté in a crust have hinges that allow you to take the mold apart in order to remove the pâté without damaging the crust. It is not essential for making pâté in a crust (after all, meat pies are a form of pâté en croûte), but it is a fundamental piece of equipment for the classic preparation. They’re considerably less expensive than terrine molds.
Thermometer
An instant-read thermometer of some kind is essential for knowing when your pâté is done. The most convenient kind is a cable thermometer, which has a probe that remains in the food throughout the cooking, attached to a countertop monitor. A digital instant-read is the next-best choice.
Roasting Pan
Pâtés require the gentle heat of a water bath, so you’ll need a roasting pan large enough to hold your terrine mold.
Knives
All cooking—everything you need to do in a kitchen—can be done using two knives, a chef’s knife and a paring knife. No one needs a block with twelve knives. It’s a good idea to invest in quality with these two fundamental knives. A boning knife with a thin, semiflexible blade is good to have as well but not mandatory. The only mandatory requirement where knives are concerned is sharpness. Keep your knives as sharp as lightning. We recommend using a professional wet-grind service if there is one in your area.
A slicing knife is preferable for cutting terrines, but it is not mandatory; if you don’t have one, use the thinnest blade you have.
RULES TO LIVE BY
All crafts follow specific principles, and the craft of charcuterie is no different. Pay attention to them, follow them, and your pâtés will be excellent. Ignore them and they won’t be. It’s as simple as that. What follows are our rules to live by when making pâtés.
Temperature
Temperature is one of the most critical factors when making pâtés or any kind of forcemeat that requires the uniform blending of meat and fat—temperature of the ingredients, temperature of the tools, and temperature of the air. Cold is essential for keeping fat bound to protein, and this is one area where the home kitchen can have an advantage over the restaurant kitchen. Restaurant kitchens are often very hot, and keeping ingredients below 40°F/4°C is harder there than in cooler home kitchens (unless it’s August and you don’t have AC). So if you’re making pâtés and sausages in a restaurant, find the coolest part of the kitchen at the coolest time of the day. Always remember, the colder the better. Ideally all ingredients are just above freezing when you’re grinding, pureeing, and mixing them.
Time
This kind of cooking takes time, so give yourself plenty of it. Few things make cooking more difficult and un-fun than when you’re rushing. When you rush, you tend to take shortcuts. Shortcuts compromise the pâté. There are no shortcuts here, or in any excellent cooking.
Proper Equipment
Use the right tools for the job and keep those tools in good shape. In the case of pâté, this primarily means having a good grinder and good food processor, both with very sharp blades.
Ingredients
That you use quality ingredients should be a given. There’s a reason for the restaurant adage “Garbage in, garbage out.” It’s hard to make mediocre ingredients into excellent dishes. In charcuterie, try to use meat raised by a grower who cares about that meat rather than the industrial meat at your grocery store. When using liver, try to get the best-quality liver you can find—again, ideally from local farmers.
It’s best if you’re able to use meat that hasn’t been frozen. The uniform blending of fat and protein in a pâté is an emulsion, fat suspended in a network of water and protein. Water is important in creating and maintaining the emulsion. When frozen meat thaws, it loses water.
A few of these recipes call for pink curing salt. This product, salt with sodium nitrite, goes by various names: DQ Curing Salt #1, Insta Cure #1, Prague Powder #1, and TCM (tinted cure mix). They are all the same. Pink curing salt prevents spoilage from harmful microbes and creates the distinctive piquant flavors of bacon, corned beef, and other preserved meats. In these recipes, it’s used exclusively for color and so is optional.
Seasoning
There are two kinds of seasoning: salt and everything else.
Salt is critical to flavor, so you want to be sure to use the right amount. And remember that food eaten cold requires more salt (about 2 percent by weight) than food eaten hot (usually 1 percent by weight, but often more depending on what you’re making).
Like most chefs I’ve worked with, Brian uses Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which has no anticaking agents. But it is much lighter than the other common kosher salt, Morton’s, which is what I use. I’m simply used to how much I pinch when I season. Our general recommendation is to always use the same salt so that you get used to seasoning by hand. I find it difficult to season meat with Diamond Crystal because I have to add twice as much by sight as I think I should because it’s so light; I invariably end up undersalting my food.
Sea salt is, of course, fine to use, but again, depending how finely it’s ground, it will have a different weight relative to its volume than kosher salt.
The most important point when using salt for the recipes in this book, then, is to always weigh your salt for accuracy. If you’re not using a scale, we recommend that you use Morton’s kosher salt to measure by volume.
Other seasonings, primarily spices, should be fresh. Ground spices that have been sitting in a spice rack for longer than you can remember are going to have a different effect than spices that are fresh. As a rule, it’s best to toast spices whole—30 seconds in a hot, dry pan should do it—and grind them as you need them. We offer two pâté spice blend recipes that go with different meats (see pages 33 and 34).
Cooking
Most of the cooking here is done in the gentle heat of a water bath, which we’ll discuss in “The Basic Steps for All Pâtés” (page 27).
When searing food—in the gratin preparations, for instance—we use high heat. Allow your pan to get very hot before adding the oil, and once you’ve added the oil, allow the oil to heat before you put the meat in. The meat you add to this hot pan should be as dry as possible, since moisture will cool the oil. When you lay the cold meat in the hot oil, don’t touch it until it’s well seared—often cooks are afraid that the meat will stick, so they move it around in the pan immediately, which is exactly when it is stuck; it effectively unsticks itself from the pan as it sears. These are all fundamental principles of sautéing generally, but because searing is so important for flavor in pâtés, which will be eaten cold, it’s especially worth noting here.
Fat Separation: Troubleshooting
Since most forcemeats are between 40 and 50 percent fat, it’s important that the fat not separate out of your mix during cooking. Fat separation, a broken emulsion, is the number one reason a pâté fails. Generally, there are five reasons fat might separate out of forcemeat:
1. The number one reason fat separates out is heat. To prevent this, it’s critical that everything stay very cold. The meat and fat should never be left to sit out at room temperature. Before grinding and pureeing the meat and fat, it’s best if they are on the verge of freezing, stiff with cold. If you’re slow in butchering it, keep whatever you’re not working on in the freezer until you’re ready for it.
2. Another form of heat we tend not to think about is friction. The friction of grinding the meat heats it, as does the friction of pureeing the meat in a food processor. This is why we recommend that you grind meat into a metal bowl that’s set in an ice bath; ideally you will also have chilled the bowl in the freezer first.
3. The cutting blade in the grinder or food processor is dull.
4. The farce is cooked at too high a temperature. Foods that are high in fat require low and slow cooking, which is why we always cook our pâtés in a water bath in a 300°F/150°C oven, below boiling temperatures.
5. Too much liquid is added. Reductions play a key role in flavoring pâtés, but the reduction should be of syrup consistency so you have all the flavor without the diluting qualities.
A WORD ABOUT MEAT GENERALLY AND ABOUT THE PIG SPECIFICALLY
It should go without saying that the quality of meat varies depending on how that particular animal was raised. The most inexpensive pork found at the most inexpensive grocery stores is commodity pork; it will have very little flavor and be unnaturally lean. We are aware that everyone’s budget differs, but we do recommend buying from stores that source their meat conscientiously or, better, from the growers themselves if this is available to you. If there is a Whole Foods Market near you, these stores tend to have excellent meat. Medium-size independent grocers are often good sources of meat. And of course growers’ markets can not only offer the best quality, they can often get you the odd bits unavailable at stores (a whole pig’s head, for instance, or pork back fat).
I use the pig as the example because its meat and fat are the anchor of this culinary specialty. Its creamy, neutral-flavored fat is perfect for enriching pâtés and rillettes. Its meat offers uncommonly diverse flavors. Beef runs tough to tender, lean to well marbled, but it all tastes pretty much the same: beefy. Lamb is basically lamb. Chicken has light meat, which is very mild, and dark meat, which is more flavorful. But pork seems to have a whole range of flavors and textures depending on where on the animal it comes from. The quality of the animal’s raising is immediately apparent in the color and flavor of the meat and the quality of the fat. You can create preparations of astonishing diversity from a single animal, more than from any creature on earth. Pork can be silky prosciutto, succulent baby back ribs, soppressata, bacon, tender pork chops, crunchy cracklings, crispy pig ears, or a country liver pâté.
The pig is nothing short of a miracle creature offering extraordinary bounty.
The common cuts of the pig used here are primarily the shoulder (also known as the butt), the belly, and the layer of fat that runs along the back of the animal, sometimes referred to as fatback but more accurately called back fat.
The shoulder is a heavily worked muscle and so needs to be tenderized either through cooking or through cutting and grinding. It is also one that is well marbled and therefore very flavorful and succulent. This makes it the perfect meat for making sausage (see our book Charcuterie) or sausage’s close cousin, pâté.
The pig has fat of varying consistencies. Some fat is squishy; other fat is firm. And leaf lard, which is the fat from the viscera surrounding the kidneys, is, when rendered, especially dense-white and creamy and is especially prized for bakers of savory pastries. If you can get your hands on it, we urge you to try using it to make any of the doughs in part 4, “Crust.”
Back fat is more common and easily acquired. This is the fat that runs over the loins, which run down either side of the tall spine (when you see a pork chop with a layer of fat around the loin part, that’s part of the back fat). You may need to special-order it from wherever you buy your meat.
If you can’t find back fat, using fat from lower down on the pig, the belly, is acceptable. Keep in mind that depending on where on the belly it comes from, it might be half fat and half meat. The fat becomes softer the closer it gets to the back leg; that mushy fat is not the best for pâté. The belly is a great cut because of its abundant fat and, like the shoulder, is a heavily worked and therefore flavorful cut.
THE BASIC STEPS FOR ALL PÂTÉS
What follows are the basic steps to follow for making all pâtés—and the reasons for them. Flip back to these pages for reference when preparing any of the pâté recipes in this book.
Cutting Meat to the Right Size
This should be common sense, but it needs to be emphasized: All meat that is to be ground should be diced or cut into strips small enough that they don’t need to be forced down the feed tube of the grinder. The less your grinder has to work, the better your grind will be. After you’ve cut the meat, it should be returned to the fridge and completely chilled or put on a baking sheet in the freezer before being ground.
The Ice Bath
Because we want to keep the meat as cold as possible all the time, and because grinding heats the meat through friction, we grind our meat into a metal bowl set in an ice bath. An ice bath is simply a larger bowl filled with about 60 percent ice and 40 percent cold water; the goal is for ice or ice water to be in contact with the entire surface of the metal bowl that is set in it, where the ground meat will soon be.
Grinding and Pureeing
Grinding determines the texture of the finished pâté. Pâtés can be coarsely or finely ground. For the most part we like them all fairly well ground, even country pâté, so grinding is a critical step for two reasons. First, grinding helps develop the myosin protein in the meat, which is sticky and creates a good bind. Second, the grind is an important factor in creating a stable meat-and-fat emulsion, a mixture in which the fat is uniformly distributed (as it is in baloney or mortadella, or in a hotdog or other finely textured sausage). The bind and the emulsion are the primary factors in a pâté’s texture, its luxuriousness.
We use four different sizes of dies for grinding: 1⅛ inch/3 millimeters, ¼ inch/6 millimeters, 3⅛ inch/9 millimeters, and ½ inch/12 millimeters. The dies typically have some sort of indication on them of their size, such as “1-4” for ¼ inch, or “6mm” for 6 millimeters. (You can always measure the hole with a ruler if there’s no indication on the die itself.) We will always specify which die is optimal. We know that not everyone has the same dies, and some may simply have one large die and one fine die (these are usually 3⅛ inch/9 millimeters and 1⅛ inch/3 millimeters). Use your common sense in determining which die to use. If a recipe calls for grinding through a ½-inch/12-millimeter die and you don’t have one, use the one you have that is closest to that size.
Straight forcemeat pâtés and gratin forcemeat pâtés require a progressive grind, which, in most cases, means grinding the meat first through a ¼-inch/6-millimeter die (or 3⅛-inch/9-millimeter die if that’s what you have), then regrinding through a 1⅛-inch/3-millimeter die. This results in a very fine texture and stable emulsion. (If you have a very powerful grinder, as Brian does—he uses a 3-horsepower Hobart, the Ferrari of grinders—you don’t necessarily need to use a progressive grind.)
Some straight and gratin forcemeats may call for only a single grind through a large die. This is fine for a coarsely textured pâté, but one grind typically doesn’t develop the myosin well enough to hold the pâté together. So to make up for the lack of binding, egg is added (the white is primarily protein), a tactic popularized by France’s uber-charcutier, Gilles Vérot.
For country pâtés, we like a coarse grind; to ensure that it has a good bind, we regrind about a third of the meat through a fine die.
For mousseline forcemeats, the meat may not be ground at all, only pureed in a food processor. This is the case for chicken and seafood. Veal shoulder or duck thighs, though, may require grinding through a fine die before being finished in a food processor.
Grinding and Temperature
As always, temperature is the main force to be reckoned with when grinding meat for pâté, since the friction of grinding raises the temperature of the meat. The feed tube and grinder should be stored in the freezer until you’re ready to use them. Once you’ve rechilled your meat and fat after dicing it, set your metal bowl in an ice bath. Then set up your grinder.
If a recipe calls for grinding the meat twice, store the first grind in the fridge (or in the freezer—just be careful not to let it freeze solid) while you change the die on the grinder and rechill it (at this point it may be quickest to chill the grinder in a bowl or bucket of ice water, but you can refreeze it).
If the pâté must be both ground and pureed in a food processor—or if you’re making a mousseline, which requires only a food processor—store the bowl and blade of the food processor in the freezer until you’re ready to use them.
Mixing
Country pâtés are mixed using a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Your meat should be very cold when you mix it, since you rechilled it in the fridge or freezer after grinding. We don’t freeze the mixer bowl and paddle, but we do make sure that most additional ingredients (diced interior garnish, for example) are chilled.
The Quenelle Test
Before you cook your pâté, you will want to test it, mainly to check for seasoning (if it doesn’t have a good bind or if the fat is separating out of it, there’s not a lot you can do to remedy it). The most definitive way to do this is to roll a small cylinder of the pâté, the size of your thumb, in plastic wrap and poach it gently until it’s cooked through, then taste it. If you want to be absolutely sure of the seasoning, chill it quickly in an ice bath, then taste—and remember, cold food needs to be seasoned more aggressively than food eaten hot. If you must expedite matters, you can sauté a small patty of it and taste, keeping in mind that you won’t have the flavors from browning, and that it should taste slightly oversalted when eaten warm.
If the pâté is lacking in flavor or seasoning, add more salt or spice and remix until the seasoning is incorporated.
Filling the Pâté en Terrine
Line your terrine mold with plastic wrap to facilitate unmolding it. Cooking in plastic wrap is considered safe provided the wrap doesn’t have plasticizers or the chemical BPA—which most brand-name plastic wraps do not contain. (If you remain concerned about the effects of cooking food in plastic, even at these low temperatures, line your terrine mold the old-fashioned way: with thinly sliced bacon or back fat.) Sprinkling water in the terrine mold helps the plastic wrap stick into all the corners. Use enough plastic wrap so that you have plenty of overhang to fold over the top of your terrine after the mold has been filled.
When the terrine mold has been filled with the pâté and you have pressed down on it with a rubber spatula to make sure there are no air pockets, fold the plastic wrap over the top of the terrine mold. Cover the terrine with a lid or with aluminum foil.
The Water Bath
All pâtés en terrine are cooked in a water bath. We’ll give the instructions here to avoid making each recipe cumbersome with steps that are the same no matter what recipe you’re making.
We use a water bath to maintain a low heat around the terrine mold, lower than boiling. Evaporation has a cooling effect and prevents the water from boiling in a 300°F/150°C oven (if you covered the pan, the water would boil).
Moving a big roasting pan filled with near-boiling hot water can be difficult, so we try to minimize this effort. At least 45 minutes before you want to cook your pâté, preheat your oven to 300°F/150°C. Place your empty terrine mold in a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with hot tap water until it comes up to the lip or edge of the terrine mold. Remove the mold from the roasting pan. Put the pan in the oven so that the water will preheat along with the oven.
We use a combination of spatula and tongs to place the terrine in the water and to remove it. A large offset spatula is best to support the weight of the terrine, along with strong metal tongs to grip the edges of the mold. You may find it easier, when removing the terrine, to pull out the oven rack and remove the terrine mold from the roasting pan, then leave the roasting pan on the rack and allow the water to cool.
When you remove the cooked pâté, simply set it on your stovetop until it’s comfortable to touch.
Pâtés not being cooked in a terrine mold are typically poached in water kept at 170°F/76°C. The only pâté not cooked in water is the ballotine, which is roasted and served hot.
Temperatures
For the best flavor, texture, and juiciness, we recommend cooking your pâtés to the following final internal temperatures, keeping in mind that they will continue to cook after coming out of the water bath.
Foie gras: 118°F/48°C
Duck pâté: 135°F/57°C
Seafood pâté: 135°F/57°C
Pork pâté: 145°F/63°C
Chicken pâté: 160°F/71°C
Please note that these temperatures do not align with the USDA’s food safety recommendations, which call for higher temperatures. We don’t believe that those temperatures result in the best flavor. When the food is handled correctly and taken to our recommended temperatures, the dishes are both delicious and safe, but if you have concerns, please cook the pâtés to whatever temperature suits you.
Weighting and Cooling
As a pâté cools, it contracts. To help give it a uniform texture and shape as it does so, it’s best to put a weight on top.
Cut a cardboard rectangle or thin piece of wood or plexiglass to the dimensions of the interior top of your terrine mold. Wrap this in aluminum foil. Once the terrine is out of the water bath and is cool enough to handle, put the terrine in the refrigerator. Place the rectangular board on top and place two or three canned goods on top of this (about 2 pounds/1 kilogram total).
Pâtés not cooked in a terrine mold, but rather rolled in plastic wrap and poached, should be removed from the poaching medium and transferred to an ice bath until thoroughly chilled, an hour or so. Pâtés such as a galantine, which is wrapped in cheesecloth and poached in stock, should be cooled as well (preferably in chilled stock).
It’s important to allow the terrine to chill completely before unmolding—so while a pâté en terrine may seem fully chilled after 6 to 8 hours in the fridge, it’s best to let it chill for at least 12 hours, or overnight.
Unmolding, Slicing, and Serving
Brian and I basically met over a pâté slicing table, when Brian was presenting his pork pâté to the judges of the Certified Master Chef exam as I was writing about it. There Brian had the entire setup for professional slicing and serving: the pâté, the sauce, plates, the bain marie insert filled with hot water, a slicing knife in that hot water, latex gloves, towels. Happily we don’t always have to go through such efforts, though the setup is instructive.
To unmold a pâté from its terrine once it’s fully chilled, remove the weight on top, then tug at the edges of the plastic wrap to loosen it. Upend the mold onto a cutting board; the pâté should come right out. If you are working with a delicate mousseline or if you are using fat or bacon as your lining, it’s a good idea to set the entire terrine mold in hot water for a minute to loosen the pâté. Then simply unwrap your terrine and discard the plastic wrap.
To slice the terrine, hold the blade of your knife (if you don’t have a slicing knife, use the thinnest, longest knife you own) under hot water, dry it quickly with a towel, and slice across the width of the pâté in one complete stroke forward. Heat the knife again under hot water, dry it, and do the same to make slices about ½ inch/1 centimeter thick.
Individual slices may be plated with a sauce of some sort—mustard or a chutney—and perhaps some greens, or slices may be served on a board with good bread and mustard on the side.
BINDERS
We use five main binders to strengthen the meat-fat emulsion and give the forcemeat an elegant texture, which is essential to the overall flavor and richness. They can also lighten a pâté.
THE ALL-MEAT METHOD. This technique relies on the meat’s own protein, myosin, as the sole binder. The highest-quality meat, preferably meat that has never been frozen, should be used. It should be lean and trimmed of all connective tissue and fat. For the fat, pure, firm pork back fat is recommended, as opposed to random trimmed fat. Temperature is especially important when there is no added binder of the kinds described below, so be sure to keep all meats, fat, and equipment cold, cold, cold—but not frozen solid.
EGGS AND EGG WHITES. The egg white is composed of several different proteins, all of which help bind the pâté and improve its texture. Eggs have a neutral flavor, but from a functional standpoint, they are very powerful. Often only egg whites are called for (as in a seafood mousseline); when whole eggs are used, the yolk both enriches and lightens the finished pâté. The pork fat content can be lowered if you’re using egg, though we never encourage lower fat on moral and flavor grounds.
BREAD. Moist, crustless bread is an excellent binder and lightener of forcemeats and one of the easiest binders to use. Any good-quality plain white bread, baguette, or country loaf is good. It’s best not to use a heavy sourdough-style bread or other highly flavored bread. Soaking the bread in milk or heavy cream, and especially in beaten eggs, will create excellent binding and lightness.
PÂTE À CHOUX. Pâte à choux is one of the most versatile preparations, one that ought to be more prevalent in the home kitchen. It gives us cheese puffs and cream puffs (when baked), pasta-like dumplings (when boiled), and churros (when fried in oil). Milk (or water), flour, eggs, and butter—that’s it. What’s interesting is that flour is added to boiling liquid and cooked till it forms a paste, then eggs are stirred in. It’s a fabulous binder in pâté as well, worth the small trouble of making (see the recipe above). This binder works especially well with lighter tender meats like poultry and fish but also with vegetables and pork pâtés. If too much pâte à choux is used, the end product may have a gummy consistency.
COOKED WHITE RICE OR POTATOES. Rice has a nice way of lightening up a pâté and giving it delicacy. Like bread and eggs, it is flavor-neutral and helps create a smooth texture. This binder works especially well with fish and vegetables. This is also a way to use a binder but keep a pâté completely gluten-free should you be serving anyone with celiac disease or severe gluten intolerance. Cooked potatoes are sometimes used for pâtés using light meats, such as veal, which is also a gluten-free binding option. But use a light hand, as too much of either can result in a gummy or sticky consistency.
GARNISHES
Garnish plays an important role in most pâtés, regardless of the type. Garnish adds color, a visually pleasing mosaic, varying textures, and, most important, flavor. How should you think about garnish in a pâté? As you would with any garnish for any dish: Does the taste contrast or enhance that of the pâté? Does it add the appropriate color? Is it the proper size? In a fine forcemeat, the garnish should usually be smaller and neatly cut. In a more coarse country pâté, the garnish may be unevenly sized and rough. Should it be random, small nuts or chunks of whole meat simply paddled into the pâté to wind up where they may? Or would the pâté benefit from a more structured approach, where you determine exactly where the garnish will stay in the finished pâté—a whole duck breast in a duck pâté, for instance? (This is referred to as a structured inlay and is completely enclosed in the pâté itself.) And how much to use? Not more than half of the pâté, or you may weaken the structure of the pâté. But not so sparingly that it appears to be an afterthought.
What follows are a few suggestions for garnishes that work well with specific meat, fish, and vegetable terrines.
Pork
All confits (see pages 159 to 179) add a chewy texture and rich salty flavor to pork pâté. Smoked ham, smoked tongue, cooked sweetbreads, peeled pistachios or hazelnuts, pine nuts, cooked mushrooms, truffles, and some dried fruits (such as tart cherries, apricots, and prunes) all work to provide textural, visual, and flavor contrasts.
Game
Game benefits from the same garnishes pork does, especially the dried fruits—tart cherries, apricots, raisins, and prunes.
Poultry
In addition to the garnishes listed for pork, cooked hard vegetables also work for poultry, such as carrots or green beans. Roasted bell peppers are excellent. Soft leafy greens such as spinach or arugula also go nicely with neutral-tasting chicken. Soft herbs, such as tarragon or chives, which can be chopped or laid in as a whole structured garnish, are particularly flavorful.
Veal
Veal takes the same garnishes as pork with the exception of dried fruits, which do not work well with veal.
Fish and Shellfish
Soft leafy herbs, spinach, and cooked mushrooms are excellent in seafood pâtés, as are chunks of compatible-tasting seafood—whole shrimp in a lobster terrine, for instance.
Vegetable
Most vegetable terrines are light and soft like a custard. Any garnish, then, needs to be similarly soft and compatible so the pâté can be sliced cleanly—think cooked mushrooms, any of our vegetable confits (see pages 177 to 179), soft leaves of spinach or watercress, and soft herbs.
PÂTÉ SPICE BLENDS
Making your own fresh spice blend from whole spices that you toast and grind is one of the most influential steps toward making great pâtés. Even if you could buy commercial spice blends, as you can with pickling spices, your own spice blend would be so much better.
Brian’s spice blends began with Escoffier and with his mentor, Chef Milos, back in the 1980s. Over the years he’s developed combinations of spices that suit his tastes. You, too, should feel free to improvise, or follow his recipes, to the right and on page 34.
We recommend that you don’t make more pâté spice than you will use over a couple of months, because the flavor will fade. Store unused spices in an airtight container in a cool, dark place or, better, in your freezer.
All-Purpose Spice Mix for Meat Pâtés
This is a great all-purpose blend. If you love the sweet spices, such as nutmeg and ginger, add more of those; if you like savory, up the herbs.
1 ounce/30 grams white peppercorns
½ ounce/14 grams sweet Hungarian paprika
½ ounce/14 grams ground bay leaves
¼ ounce/7 grams dried marjoram leaves
¼ ounce/7 grams dried thyme leaves
¼ ounce/7 grams ground nutmeg
¼ ounce/7 grams ground mace
¼ ounce/7 grams ground ginger
¼ ounce/7 grams ground cloves
1. Toast the peppercorns in a dry sauté pan. Transfer to a spice or coffee grinder.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and pulverize into a powder.
3. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 2 months.
Spice Mix for Wild Game
We don’t include any recipes for wild game pâtés in this book, but many people who have access to game can use this blend, which is especially good for large furred game such as elk, deer, and moose, which have a stronger flavor.
½ ounce/14 grams white peppercorns
½ ounce/14 grams black peppercorns
1 ounce/30 grams juniper berries
½ ounce/14 grams ground mustard
¼ ounce/7 grams dried marjoram leaves
¼ ounce/7 grams dried thyme leaves
¼ ounce/7 grams ground bay leaves
¼ ounce/7 grams ground nutmeg
¼ ounce/7 grams ground mace
¼ ounce/7 grams ground ginger
1. Toast both peppercorns in a dry sauté pan. Transfer to a spice or coffee grinder.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and pulverize into a powder.
3. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 2 months.