I’ve been making this terrine for about ten years now – Adrian brought it into my life. It always makes an appearance at our annual ‘Twixmas’ party. Serve it with hot toast and pickled damsons, spiced apple chutney, sweet pickled cucumber or just a few little cornichons. It’s perfect to keep in the fridge over Christmas, if you can find the time to make it in advance in case you need a snack or guests arrive for lunch. It has a lovely rich flavour, spiced, moist game and creamy chicken livers… delicious.
SERVES 10
• 2 rabbits or 2 wild duck or 4 pigeons or 1 pheasant or a mixture
• salt and pepper
• 800g sausage meat
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and grated
• 5 juniper berries, crushed and chopped
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 250g chicken livers, roughly chopped and gristly bits discarded
• 50g pistachios or blanched almonds or hazelnuts
• butter, for greasing
• 3 bay leaves, preferably fresh
• 600g unsmoked streaky bacon, thinly sliced
EQUIPMENT
• 30-cm terrine tin
• meat thermometer or meat probe
• deep baking tray
Alternatives
pheasant; pigeon; duck
Advice
Keep the carcasses to make stock if you wish – it’s lovely for a cassoulet.
Buy your sausagemeat from the butcher. You want it to have a decent amount of fat in it; minced meat in the supermarkets these days is fatless to the point of ridiculousness.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. Whatever your chosen game you will need to part-cook it in the oven first. If using rabbit, duck or pheasant, roast whole on a tray for 20 minutes; for pigeon reduce the time to 15 minutes.
Leave the game until cool enough to handle, then cut off the breasts and legs and shred every scrap of meat into bite-size pieces. This is best done by hand. Season with a little salt and pepper.
While the meat is cooking and cooling, prepare the sausage meat. Add the brandy, garlic, juniper berries, thyme leaves, chicken livers and a large pinch of salt and pepper to a bowl, then the pistachios and mix together. I like the added texture of a nut, and a little pop of bright green when you cut the terrine open.
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2. Grease the terrine tin with butter and place the bay leaves on the base. These look pretty when you turn it out, but they also add flavour as the terrine steams in the oven. Line the base and sides with the bacon, leaving longer pieces hanging out so you can wrap them over and also seal the top.
Start to layer up the sausage meat mix and the game into the tin, starting and ending with a layer of sausage meat. You will have three layers of sausage meat and two layers of game meat in between. Add one-third of the sausage meat mix to the bottom of the tin and flatten it down with your hands into a pressed layer. Add half of the game meat and spread it out evenly over the sausage meat. Press it down with your palm, then add the next third of sausage meat, then the remaining game meat, then the final layer of sausage meat, pressing down the layers in between. Fold over the bacon, sealing up the top. Add a few extra bits of bacon here and there if you have any gaps.
Cover with a piece of greaseproof paper slightly larger than the tin, and tie this on with a piece of string. Place the terrine in a large deep baking tray and fill with warm water until it is about halfway up the side of the terrine tin. Cook in the oven for about an hour, or until the terrine has come away from the edges of the tin. If you want to test it with a meat thermometer or probe, the internal temperature should be about 68°C.
Remove the tray from the oven and take out the terrine. Carefully pour the water out of the tray, then place the terrine back in. Cover with another layer of greaseproof paper, then place some weights or ideally another terrine tin filled with weights, tins, etc. on top. I have been known to use 11/2 bricks, which fit nicely. Leave to stand overnight. I find it’s best to then leave it in its tin for a further day in the fridge for the flavours to really develop.
When ready to eat, loosen the edge of the terrine with a knife and then turn it upside down onto a board to remove the terrine from the tin, discarding any fat and jelly surrounding it, then slice and eat.
NOTES
This recipe is changeable depending on the season and what is to hand. For a duck terrine I use two small wild ducks, for pigeon you need four birds or you can use a whole poached chicken.