Pork Pâté

Pâté de Porc

I found this recipe for pork pâté on a website featuring recipes of Brittany. I added half a bottle cap of brandy, used rice flour instead of the cornflour and used mignonette pepper to season.

I am so grateful to the guys at the bestest butcher in the Bay for procuring the caul fat, pork liver and head for me. The recipe calls for gorges de porc/ neck of pork but I used the head. You want half meat and half fat. I would be hesitant to use wild pig liver simply because you do not know what they may have eaten; or rather you pretty well know what they do eat.

The hardest thing in making a pâté is the mincing! (and enduring the couple of days wait before eating it)…use the medium plate. You do not need a fancy terrine; a pyrex loaf dish would be most suitable. You can cover the dish for cooking with a couple of layers of foil. You will need a large dish, such as a roasting dish to serve as a water bath to cook. You have the water about half way up the pâté dish. Keep topping up the water with boiling water during the cooking.

You do not need to use caul fat but I like to…if you do not use it, simply grease the inside of the dish well before putting the mixture in. You can also line the dish with strips of streaky bacon. Try not to overdo the bacon as it can, not exactly overpower the pâté but give too much of itself!! As I have learnt, blanching the bacon first for a few minutes does take some of the salt values out of it.

The caul fat needs to be soaked. Select a piece big enough to line the dish and cover the top. Be careful as the caul can tear quite easily. Soak for a couple of hours. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water which is ideal at just on tepid. Rinse off well. Line the dish with the caul and cut off any excess with kitchen scissors but making sure that there is enough to cover the top.

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This recipe is cooked for 3 hours at 130c. When the time is up, remove the roasting dish and all to the bench and allow to cool, leaving the pâté dish in the water. When you look at the pâté it may seem as if it is swimming in fat…ir is meant to look like that so do not despair, for by allowing it to cool, the fat is absorbed into the pate. When cold, remove the dish from the roasting dish and press the mixture. I used scale weights after cutting out some cardboard and covering with foil. Leave in a cool place for two days. There may be or may not be some little bits of fat, which you can simply remove. There will be some jelly around the pâté.


So you will need…

700g pig liver
1300g lean and fat from the neck or head
1 tsp black pepper or mignonette pepper
20g fine salt
10g cornflour
1 clove of garlic
½ medium onion
½ capful brandy (optional)
2 fresh bay leaves (optional)

Cut up the liver and meat into sizes that will suit your mincer. Mince the meat, onion, garlic and liver all together, then stir in the cornflour, salt and pepper. Spoon the mix over either the caul or bacon rashers and gently press it all down and fold the caul or bacon over the bay leaves to cover the top neatly. Place in the roasting dish with cold water and put in the oven.

Store in the fridge with the lid or foil on the terrine. Will keep for at least five days.

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Spread on rustic breads or a baguette with cornichons and a little relish with a glass of cider or Sauvignon Blanc…

Sounds nice Eee Bees.

A couple of kgs of pate would take a bit of eating.

Have to add it to my "To Do List" along with spicy Goat sausages and Goose Salami.

Cheers
Pete

Might try it, have been doing pulled pork recently, but theyre eating porina grubs now so not so tasty. I'd skip the goose salami though a friend had some made and it was awful, tasted fishy, but goat sausages rock, and salami is excellent too.
We organised a "kill it then cook it" potluck dinner earlier this year now that was fun.

@Marty Henry, your "kill it then cook it" is a cool idea...would have made for a neat meal!!