16
The Terrine:
Key to the Cuisine

In another excerpt from The Cooking of Provincial France, M.F.K. Fisher discusses which wines are best to accompany the dish that sets the standard for any French kitchen—the terrine maison.

SERIOUS FRENCH EATERS—WHICH MEANS SERIOUS Frenchmen—often gauge the standards of almost any kitchen, whether great or modest, by its terrine (or pâté) maison, the special product of the house or restaurant. Pâtés are interesting to make, and very rewarding to serve. They need never be what a few of us have termed them after ordering them in inferior restaurants—“nothing but glorified meat loaf!”

Needless to say, bread and wine are on the table for this first course, and the bread is almost always the long, crisp loaf from the nearest bakery. The exception is when oysters are being served. In that case most cooks provide thin slices, buttered or not, of very dark, moist bread. But, when something like an anchoyade is being served, there is no need for anything but the crusty bread on which the deliciously loud but subtly seasoned anchovy mixture has been spread and grilled.

As for the wine, it is there, as inevitably as is the air to breathe. The only exception would be if the dish that is to follow the hors d’oeuvre demands a good beer instead. In this case the same beer or a lighter one should come first. The same is true if cider is to be served.

Any wine which accompanies the first course should be lighter and probably younger and less “important” than what will follow with the entrée. In a simple meal, one wine is usually served straight through.

A good cue to what wines will be best to drink with the first (or any) course of the meal is to try to find out what region or province the dish or dishes come from. The wines that are grown in that same place will undoubtedly be the ones which centuries have proved just right for the food flavors involved. With a quiche lorraine it would seem entirely natural to drink a cool, light white wine or perhaps a light beer from Alsace, and with a hot, strong, salty anchoyade, a thin, sharp white or rosé or red from Provence would be a good and natural foil.

FLATTERING THE TASTE BUDS

IN ANY LOCALITY, WHETHER IN A HOME OR SMALL restaurant, the wines served with the hors d’oeuvre are usually cellar-cool or chilled. And for appetite’s sake they are best preceded by more of the same, rather than by strong apéritifs or cocktails. Most of the whites and rosés are too piquant and dainty to try to arouse taste buds that have been deadened by alcohol, and no good red wine will even bother to.

Ideally, the taste buds should come through this part of the meal—the hors d’oeuvre with or without wine—feeling flattered but not content, impressed but still excited about the food that is yet to appear.