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This recipe is way overdue. I have received tons of requests over the years for this recipe, especially after I left the Charcuterie during the pandemic and it was no longer available for sale. This is a minimally livery rustic country-style pâté. It is delicious on warm crusty bread with mustard and cornichons. A sandwich with this pâté, mayo, dijon, sliced tomato, raw onions, hard-boiled eggs, and salad greens is one of my all-time favorite sandwiches. This can be dressed up for special occasions, little canapes served on slices of baguette and passed around at a party, or treated as an everyday staple. In my house, this pâté is as common as sliced deli meat.
Yes, it’s a bit of a project to make. But for many of us Home Cooks, big kitchen projects are a therapeutic activity. It’s definitely worth making a large batch of this and freezing it for later. You use the “x2, x3” function on the recipe card to scale this recipe to 2 or 3 loaf pans.
I have also posted by Master Recipe for Terrine De Campagne. This recipe is meant to be customized and scaled to large or random quantities (for example 6.5 lbs of various trim from the freezer). For the home kitchen, I highly recommend sticking to pâté batches that use 3lbs of meat or less. Larger batches can be difficult to manage in most home kitchens unless you have already invested in meat processing equipment and have a spare project refrigerator that would provide sufficient space for cooling this product down in a timely manner.
About the Ingredients
Some of the ingredients are hard to find but don’t worry, they can be omitted or substituted.
Caul fat is the lacey fat membrane that surrounds the internal organs of cows, sheep, pigs, deer and elk. It can be omitted and the pâté can be wrapped with bacon slices or professional grade plastic wrap.
Duck confit can be made ahead of time, or, depending on where you live, you may be able to buy 1-2 legs at a gourmet grocery store. If you cannot find or make it, you can simply use diced ham or omit it altogether. You’ll still have a great product.
Shelled Pistachios are now pretty easy to find at the grocery store but they are usually roasted. Raw or blanched pistachios are the best if you can find them. The bright green color adds a visual accent to the pâté. However, roasted pistachios add a nice toasty flavor and will definitely work.
PrintCountry Pâté with Pistachio and Duck Confit (Terrine de Campagne) Recipe
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour (appox)
- Total Time: 48 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf pan 1x
- Category: Charcuterie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs pork
2 1/2 ounces (.15 lbs) bacon
4 ounces (.25 lbs) liver
milk to cover livers
25 grams onion
1/2 cup chopped herbs (parsley, chives, sage, thyme and/or tarragon)
18 grams garlic
15 grams salt (2 1/2 Tablespoons)
1.4 grams (scant 1/4 teaspoon) curing salt #1
3 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) ground black pepper
2 grams (1 teaspoon) pâté spice (see note)
1 egg
1 1/2 T flour
1 1/2 T brandy
.4 (scant 1/2 cup) cups cream
65 grams (1/2 cup) shelled pistachio (preferably raw or blanched)
1/2–1 cup duck confit pieces chopped (1 duck leg or less)
Instructions
Pâté Prep
Organize your materials and make sure you have a clean sanitized surface and equipment. You will need:
- 4-5 mixing bowls (1-2 large, 3 medium)
- Cutting board
- knife
- measuring cups and spoons
- Spatulas/ wooden spoons
- Terrine dishes (8 quart capacity/1 hotel pan for every 10lbs of meat)
- Parchment
- Plastic Wrap
- Tin Foil
- Probe thermometer
- Whisk
- Meat Grinder (optional)
- Meat Mixer (optional)
- Gloves (optional but nice)
- Kitchen Scale
- Weights for terrine (see instructions)
- Clean prep space
- Enough refrigerator space to fit terrines and allow for air circulation
The night before making this terrine, soak the liver in milk to cover them.
The next morning, drain, rinse and dry the livers. Trim them of any unsightly spots.
In a bowl, combine all the dry spices. Mix well. Add the meat, bacon, liver, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs. Let this mixture sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight. NOTE: If you are using ground meat, everything else should be minced. If you are grinding your own mixture, you can leave these things coarsely chopped and grind everything up together.
In another bowl, combine the eggs, cream, b,randy and flour. Whisk until all lumps are gone. Refrigerate until ready to mix with the meat mixture. This is your “Panade”
In another bowl, combine your garnishes.
In another bowl, place your caul. You may find it helpful to soak this in water to make it easier to pull apart without ripping.
Grind the meat mixture (optional step)
If you are using ground meat, you can skip this step and save yourselves some time and dishes. However, grinding your own mixture gives you more control over the final texture of the product and is ideal if you are using your own game or farm-raised meat. I like to grind my own because I like some of the mixture to be ground fine and some to be coarser. I run everything through the medium or large die once and then I put about half the mixture back through for a second time. You could also switch between the coarse and medium die or the medium and fine die to achieve the same effect (but then you’d lose some time and end up with more dishes).
If grinding your own meat, put the auger, the die, and the tray of the grinder into the freezer or refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you plan to start grinding.
Assemble the cold grinder pieces with a mixing bowl set up to catch the ground meat.
Grind the meat mixture into the mixing bowl.
Mix the forcemeat
Add the panade to the meat mixture. Mix the meat and panade together until it is completely incorporated and the meat mixture begins to look tacky. This takes about 5 minutes. You can do this by hand for amounts less than 5 lbs, or use your stand mixer with a paddle attachment on low-medium (up to about 2lbs).
Fold in the garnishes
Once the forcemeat is mixed, fold in the chopped pistachio and duck confit.
Spray the loaf pan with cooking spray. Line the dish with caul so that it overhangs the loaf pan enough to fold over and cover the top of the terrine when filled.
Fill the terrine with the forcemeat. Try to avoid air bubbles. I do this by spooning in a little bit at a time and pushing it down in the dish. Then add more and layer it up to the top. Fold over the overhanging caul. Cover with a layer of parchment paper followed by a layer of tin foil.
Bake at 300 F until a probe thermometer inserted into the middle of the pâté reads 140 F (if no poultry or poultry liver) or 155 F if using poultry (it will continue to cook after it comes out of the oven).
When the thermometer goes off, slowly pull the probe out, pausing to read the temp on its way up. Usually, the probe settles to the bottom of the loaf which is the hottest part. The middle will be less done and the top even less. Make sure the coolest part of the loaf (the top half) is reading 140 or 155 F.
Remove the loaf(s) from the oven. Keep covered for another 10 minutes. Remove the cover and let it cool to room temp over a period of 1-2 hours (if you have a cold and clean garage, you can move it there to speed the cooling process).
Wrap the terrine completely with plastic wrap, all the way around the terrine dish (aka “hotel wrap”). Weight the terrine down. You can do this by cutting out a piece of cardboard to fit on top of the terrine and then add full cans from the pantry on top, or you can take another similar-sized loaf pan and fill it halfway with ice water and place that on top. Refrigerate the weighted terrine for 12-24 hours. See note below for important food safety info.
Portion and Serve Terrine
Invert the terrine onto a cutting board and slice it into portions. At this point, you can serve it or vacuum seal/wrap in several layers of plastic wrap and freeze it. Vacuum sealed, this product will last 6 months or more in the freezer. Wrapped in plastic wrap, 2-4 months.
Equipment
| Kitchen Aid 6 Qt Stand Mixer |
Buy Now →| Kitchener Heavy Duty Electric Meat Grinder |
Buy Now →Notes
1) IMPORTANT FOOD SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS:
If you are using the curing salt, you have 15 hours to get your terrine cooled down from 140 F – 41 F or below. If you are NOT using the Curing Salt, you have only 4 hours to get your terrine from 140-41 F. After that amount of time, botulism may become a risk. If you are making a 2-quart loaf pan of pâté, this is pretty easy to achieve without much effort. However, if you are making a larger batch using half or full-size hotel pans and placing it in a tightly packed refrigerator, you would be surprised how long food can stay above 41 F and in the “danger zone”. Do not attempt to make large batches without first having plenty of fridge space (like an extra empty fridge for projects like I have) and plenty of ice. You will want to weigh the terrines down with ice water to accelerate the cooling process.
2) Kara’s Pâté Spice
- 25 grams (1 2/3 T) ground white or black pepper
- 12 grams (2 1/2 t) ground nutmeg
- 12 grams (2 1/2 t) ground ginger
- 2 grams (1/2 t)ground cloves
- 10 grams (2 t) of ground coriander
If you want to use a pre-made spice blend instead, look for “Savory Quatre Épices”
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