403 replies to this topic

[SaladFingers]

I want to make a terrine for the 1st time and would like to follow this recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ith_85947.shtml

He uses 2 pig's trotters (I presume instead of gelatine). On this occassion I do not want to use pigs trotters. Can anyone familiar with gelatine leaves tell me how many I'd need instead of the trotters? The recipe is for a 1.5 litre terrine mould.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Pâté Pantin.
Pork, chicken, chicken livers, confit gizzards, fatback, dried cherries and pistachios.







Excess pastry and forcemeat was destined to diminutive pâtés en croûte.

[nibor]

This makes me want to dive headfirst into my monitor.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Nicely done. Did the aspic layer just ooze out, or did you pour that in through the portholes?

[ianeccleston]

Lovely, lovely Baron d'Apcher.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Nicely done. Did the aspic layer just ooze out, or did you pour that in through the portholes?

The aspic was poured in through the chimneys once the pâté had cooled. Poultry pâté got the poultry aspic treatment whereas the predominant pork versions got the porcine equivalent; in both cases the respective consommé was colored with red wine and thickened with gelatin. Initial prototypes were met with modest almost disastrous results until proper dough, forcemeat and aspic recipes/proportions were determined. Anything worth screwing up twice is worth screwing up thrice and it remains a crucial exercise in learning cookery limits (heat, fat, salt, water, time, method)

Pâté pantin Richelieu. Beta version.
Pâté fail. Pastry fell apart, aspic too loose, forcemeat dry.





Pâté pantin 2.0. Special poultry edition.
Better. With poached chicken, gizzards, liver, carrot and celery.





Turkey Pâté pantin 4.0. Special Thanksgiving edition.
Well executed save for hasty pouring of the aspic. Turkey, pork, duck, poultry livers, gizzards, pistachios, currants and fatback.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Thanks for all the gory details!

[johnnyd]

Most inspiring, Baron, and this...

Anything worth screwing up twice is worth screwing up thrice and it remains a crucial exercise in learning cookery limits (heat, fat, salt, water, time, method)

...couldn't be more true. I have to get back at it and conquer the terrine. My version 2 is on the menu for this weekend.

[vice]

For those with experience using nitrite in pâtés, what percent of the meat portion is required to maintain a nice pink hue?

[Baron d'Apcher]

For those with experience using nitrite in pâtés, what percent of the meat portion is required to maintain a nice pink hue?

.25% nitrite of meat weight.

Easter Pâté Pantin, special Greek Orthodox edition.
Game hen, duck, pork, chicken livers, lardo and pistachios. Should be rewarded with orchestra seats to the rapture.

[Blether]

Beautiful again. It looks like you got good structure in that pastry.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Poultry pâté pantin, special District of Columbia heraldry edition.
Cornish hen, pork, liver, foie gras, pistachio and dried apricot.

[Dakki]

Softcore. Show us the inside!

[Baron d'Apcher]

Cornish hen timbale with summer's end ragout of sweet corn and plum tomatoes. Had to use a jar since a metal timbale could not be found.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Pâté en Croûte.
Pork, pork tongue, fat back, pistachio and currant.

[ChrisTaylor]

A master craftsman. I am impressed with every one of those posts, Baron d'Apcher. Your blog is now on my list of worthy reads.

Edited by ChrisTaylor, 02 January 2011 - 09:55 PM.

[nakji]

That said, American pigs all have throats, and that meat must be available somewhere. I'd start by asking a good butcher, and if you have no luck there, maybe make the rounds of some ethnic markets.

Coming in late here, but if this is what I think it is, it goes by the name "hang cheong sal" in Korean barbecue. And a very succulent meat it is, too.

Baron, as ever, your pastry skills shame me. What inspires you to make the elaborate patterns? Do you use a boiled water crust?

[boondocker]

This is one we have done recently. Pheasant and rabbit ballottine surrounded by chestnut and wild mushroom puree

[Baron d'Apcher]

What inspires you to make the elaborate patterns? Do you use a boiled water crust?

Hopelessly dated cookbooks, dinner party showmanship and classical sensibilities. Cold water shortcrust.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Pâté en croûte pendaison de crémaillère, Édition spéciale imposte.

Housewarming pâté en croûte, special transom edition.


Pistachio, pig's tongue, dried figs, pork shoulder, fatback, pig's heart.


New address.


Inside.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Donated to a DC At-Large Campaign. Was not there to see what the inside looked like, but there was an inlay of pork tenderloin. Sort of looks like Stewie after cooking.

Pork Barrel Degustation.


The Flavoring Candidates


Stately Pastry


Red #40 alive

[Dakki]

Lovely as usual.

It does kind of look like Stewie, though.

[dougal]

Ummm.


Dropped past this thread to admire the latest food pron from the Baron.
Came in at the top of the last page, and scrolling down, noticed this post from last year --

For those with experience using nitrite in pâtés, what percent of the meat portion is required to maintain a nice pink hue?

.25% nitrite of meat weight.

...

I beg to suggest that (as written) this sounds very very high. (2500 ppm nitrite)

However, using 0.25% of Cure No 1 (which itself contains only 6.25% nitrite) would give 156 ppm, which is exactly the US commercial limit for 'comminuted' meat products (which would include patés).

Using 0.25% of Cure #1 would be much better than using 0.25% of Nitrite !

[vice]

That was my question originally, and I did interpret Baron's answer to mean cure #1, not pure nitrite. Very important to point it out for others, though!

[Baron d'Apcher]

Pâté en croûte, special anniversary edition.


Extended family (cured shoulder, pistachios, fat back, currants, tongue).


Rehearsal.


Cutting the cake.

[piracer]

holy crap, amazing work. I doubt i could ever make pasty that looks as good as that!

Made my first head cheese - got a pigs head, oven braised it for 5 hrs with all the flavoring, shreded meat and bits of cartiledge. Sweated some finely diced onions and reduced all that gelatin from the braising liquid with some extra XO that was lying around. now its all in the fridge under weights, hopefully it'll turn out right!

[nolnacs]

That's absolutely beautiful. Did you use cutters to do the numbers?

[Baron d'Apcher]

That's absolutely beautiful. Did you use cutters to do the numbers?

X-acto knife, trial, error and patience.

Chicken Galantine: Special “I miss my sister; Venn diagrams channeled through Robert Delaunay’s “Joie de Vivre” edition”.

Chicken opus stuffed with fig, pistachio, fatback and foie & truffle mousse. Coated in chaud-froid, covered with peppers and shellacked with clear aspic. Golden booties.
Garnish of fluted mushrooms, whittled turnips and glazed radishes.

Bird-day afternoon


The Dr. Pepper is in.


Inside edition

[Blether]

I read to the end, and I'm still laughing about the windowless basement. Another tour de force. Please keep them coming.

[FrogPrincesse]

I can't believe that I have the audacity to post to this thread after the incredible Pâtés en Croûte and Galantine by Le Baron himself, but here we go...

I have been making a lot of terrines recently. My first attempt was about a year ago. At the time I made Pâté de Campagne with the recipe from Les Halles. The recipe is pretty standard in its use of pork shoulder, pork liver, and pork fat (2:1:1 ratio). The pâté is seasoned with allspice, parsley, garlic, shallots, white wine, and Cognac, and bound with an egg. It is wrapped in caul fat and cooked in a terrine (even though, in the book, the pate is shown wrapped in what looks like barding fat, which confused me to no end as I was trying to figure out what caul fat was supposed to look like). Anyway, I managed to find all the ingredients at my local butcher shop. The execution was simple but time-consuming. As I did not own a grinder at the time, I had to finely dice the 2 pounds of mixture with a knife, which was no small task for me. In the process, it was difficult (read: impossible) to keep the meat cold. But I did what the recipe said to do when grinding was not an option: "cut the pork into small dice, and hope for the best". In the end, it seems that pâté is quite forgiving so the result was fine. I thought that the pig liver flavor was a little too pronounced for my taste, so I decided to try another recipe in the future.

I had an occasion to make pâté de campagne again recently for the Charcutepalooza September challenge. This time, I followed the recipe from Anne Willan's Country Cooking of France. It's somewhat similar to the one from Les Halles. The meat to fat ratio is about the same (1.7:1 if I am doing the math correctly), but she uses escalopes in addition to the pork shoulder. Chicken livers are used instead of pig livers, and only a small amount (that would be 0.33 compared to the amount of fat needed in the recipe). I liked that change because chicken livers are much easier to find for me, and also because I did not want to taste of liver to overwhelm the pâté. Unlike the previous year, I had appropriate equipment available, and I used my new Kitchenaid grinder with a coarse die. I used the technique from Charcuterie and lined my mold with plastic wrap so I would not have to hunt for caul fat again (I like caul fat but very few places seem to have it available and when it’s available, it’s always frozen). Everything worked well and I was pleased with the end result. I would make that recipe again and maybe add some pistachios next time for texture and “visual interest”. We all liked the taste and my cat went completely nuts for it, which is odd because usually he is not into “people food”.




(to be continued)