bleudauvergne

The Terrine is basically a family of dishes that includes, pâté en croûte. How can what we normally find defined as a "terrine" be differentiated from a "pâté en croûte"? Mainly what is offered as a "terrine" contains distinct elements often prepared seperately and then layered instead of a more or less homogenous mix which we would define as a pâté. The name Terrine comes from the vessel it is cooked in. The pâté en croûte is indeed a type of terrine. One French book on my shelf entitled simply "Terrines", contains recipes for terrines, pâté, pâté en croûte, rillettes, a recipe for a mousse a la gelée, a flan, and several layered fruit desserts which are unmoulded and sliced crossways to be served. As you can see the definition is quite loose, and large. Terrines are an important part of French cuisine, but as Adam ilustrates, the same tradition of the pâté exists in England (and Scotland of course), and in my mind they can and should be grouped together. Some exploration of the etymology of the word might help as well. The image of the galantine : Another French cookbook circa 1900, in the chapter entitles " pâté and terrines" includes recipes for "bouchées", which are a small version of the vol au vent, pâté chaud, pâté en terrine (which is served cold), "terrine ou pâté de foies de canards", various other terrines which are layered larger cuts of meats, timbales, tourtes, and ending with the vol au vent. There seems to be a blurring of the meaning of the words pâté, which is the minced and seasoned meat, and pâte, which is the croute, and two terms that seem to be intricately intertwined as I examine the cookbooks I have dating back into the 1800s. As for sources in the English language for recipes that might already be on your shelf for the preparation of pâté and terrines, a nice introduction is Richard Olney's chapter entititled "Cold Terrines, Pâtés, Mousses". In an essay preceding his recipes, he gives a historical rundown of notable turning points as the meaning and presentation of the French terrine has developed and what it means today. Julia Child has a chapter in her Mastering the Art in Volume I which briefly covers pâté en croute. Louisette Bertholle, in her "French Cooking for All", has a chapter entitled Game Pâtés, which has some interesting recipes. Paula Wolfert's Southwest France tome contains several terrine recipes. Wolfgang Puck also has two terrine recipes in his "Modern French Cooking", one of which is quite interesting, a "Duck terrine with Hazelnuts and green peppercorns." (note I have used accents in this post but will not in the future to enable the search feature to work properly for any of these terms.)

Seth - It's beautiful! Isn't it strange that we all start making the same things at the same time. It seems that a lot of terrines call for pistachios. I wonder why that is. They are very good in a rabbit terrine...

And the herbs? Thyme, chevril, sage? Oh yes please Adam, and can you please take pictures especially of the wrapping and of your method of placing it under a weight. Thank you.

Dear Adam. What are barberries?

Adam, what did you use as a mould? What did you line the mould with? It really looks very good. Care to share the recipe?

It looks like, in order to get the round shape in the cross cut of the terrine on the left front, they filled it halfway with forcemeat, and then added the central oblong cylinder, and then filled it up the rest of the way. Yes?

Photos of some terrines from the Les Halles Thread:

Hm, I'd be pleased to take a look at the Time Life book. I also have a little picture book put out by Marabout of various terrine ideas. I was this morning riveted on the introduction to Olney's recipe, a gem of an essay on various fish terrines he has known: Ahh, the anticipation!

Beautiful Terrines, Adam. I was just reading (and finding great inspiration in) a recipe this morning, from Richard Olney's Simple French Food, in which he composes his forcemeat from a base of duxelles, with the addition of a panade which has been made from stale bread and garlic which has been pounded made into a mush with fish fumet and reduced over heat to a paste, adds eggs, parboiled and squeezed spinach for color, seasonings, and finally the minced whiting and diced salmon. He then lines the terrine with sole fillets which brim over the sides, flesh side out and skin side in, and fills the terrine. This is slowly cooked in a bain marie, chilled, and served with a whipped tomato cream.

Lately I've been thinking about terrines of all kinds. The galantines, the veggie terrines which burst with the season's flavor, the meats and fish that are so welcome at the table starting around this time of year for us now that certain fresh veggies and herbs are coming into their flavorful season. We love to prepare them at home with the best we can get and serve them to larger groups for lunch, the visual results are often really very good for a relatively low time investment. Last year I picked up a bunch of moulds of different shapes and it's time to crack them out again. I would love to hear terrine/mousse/galantine experiences, for ideas on what kinds of interesting combinations might be hiding in the stalls at the market. Presentation ideas, classic combinations, things that were in but have gone out of style, recent pleasant suprises... Any ideas?

Hey now there Ptipois, I have had some excellent chevre from the local farms between Vannes and the coast and on up toward Brest, don't be so quick to write off the cheese of Brittany! What you want to do, Mallet, is pay attention to any and all roadside signs, most especially the hand painted or simple ones. "Fromage (with an arrow)" or "Chevre (with an arrow)" come to mind.

Amazing and beautiful.

Dear Wendy, My husband Loic has a sweet tooth and so loves desserts. I treated him to the splendor of your montage of past work tonight and he is thinking a rabbit cake would be just wonderful. Any one of them will do. Your cakes and desserts look so inspiring! How many years of daily work has it taken to reach your level? Something that immediately crossed my mind when scrolling through your beautiful portfolio is that many members of your club must think of you first when a wedding is planned in the family. How does that work? Are you consigned by the club or for private events such as weddings, or do you get to negotiate direct with the family holding the event? I am really enjoying all of the wonderful pictures and am infinitely intrigued by what I've seen of your daily life. Your kitties are beautiful too.

In many cases I do end up disspointed that we spent so much money on a meal that we could have done with better ingredients at home for the same price. However THE main reason we do eat from time to time in fine dining establishments is that the work of the full kitchen staff cannot under most circumstances be reproduced at home. I am always more satisfied after having eaten a meal in a restaurant that I know I could not do myself. Most of the time I mentally calculate what I could do with the same amount of cash, and some meals we have enjoyed, due to skill or long advance prep of broths, infusions, or heavy manual labor clearly cannot be done as well at home without a whole lot of trouble. As for the recipes in question in Mr. Bittman's piece, I went back to take a closer look at them and although Vongerichten's recipe is a bit fussier, it does not call for exotic ingredients nor does it call for anything requiring advance prep, two of the most prohibitive factors we most find in the "chefs books". In fact, between the two recipes, I would be more inclined to favor the Vongerichten recipe for sea bass. However instead of turning the fish I would start it as written it skin down, and then finish it under the broiler, because I personally feel that it would produce a better effect for this dish. The fact that one takes an hour and one takes 15 minutes doesn't make much difference in my mind, since I don't mind cooking for an hour. However if I only have a few minutes to cook something, the Bittman recipe looks like a very nice way to cook a fish.

We also visited a fois gras farm on the way home from Bordeaux and it all seemed innocent enough. I agree with chefzadi when I say I don't experience even a tinge of guilt when I eat fois gras. It never struck me as a cruel activity, especially seeing what I did at the farm, which were big fat calm, happy, social, creatures. A friend of ours grew up in Gascony, and most times when they come to visit I recieve a jar of what her parents put in jars that year. It's really delicious. I don't think they produce the fois, they have a good source for local good product. She says that anything larger than 400g. is going to suffer in quality, this is just what she has been raised to believe. The stories of artisanal vs. industrialized production fall in line with this.

Hey Bill it all looks like lots of fun! I'm so sorry your microwave conked out. I wonder what could have caused it. Is it covered under any warrantee? About the beet powder, Rich's idea of dehydrating it in the oven might work. Gee I hope you find some peas. If it turns out that you can't find any fresh, are you going to choose another recipe or are you going to make due with the best you can find? It looks great so far!

I also read this essay and thought it was very well written. It summarizes some of the issues we've been grappling with in the France forum in a nutshell.

What a great essay! This morning I got to travel through the inspired journey from the invention of the cuisinart to how this publication changed the way you see food and cooking. It's wonderful. If only I could see back issues of The Pleasures of Cooking. Thanks to your article it takes on a mythical quality in my mind. The articles you mention sound intriguing and passionate. I'm going to try to find some copies at the library when I go home this summer. Tell us more!

Zoe, why not give us a description of what you had at Chez Bru. In the meantime, I can provide you with the number for the restaurant that catered my wedding, it was simple traditional food and quite good. La Cerisaie in Belgentier 04 94 48 98 77 We had sangria aperetifs with little toasts, then a buffet with lots of things, then magret de canard with various simple vegetables, salad, a cheese course and desserts. The wines were quite good, served in unlimited quantities. Since we were on site, the group stayed until 5am, and the wine kept flowing... From what I remember it was about €60 a head with aperetif including drinks, buffet, full service main dish, wines, cheese, and desserts. The only thing I would do differently would be to order the cake from a cake specialist and not the restaurant.

Does the "truffade" include creme in any form, or just the potatoes, onions, and cheese?

That looks like one really good tartiflette, Wendy. I think you can get Reblochon from fromages.com. Tell me more about what ham you use, etc! Are you using creme fraiche epaisse or just heavy cream (That works quite well when you can't get creme fraiche)?

Everything looks really scrumtious, Kirstin! How many pocky flavors exist? Just a question - what does hanami mean? Does it mean park, or is some kind of meeting (with the 8 women)?

I am so glad to have the RecipeGullet back and available to everyone! Thing look great! I love the Ingredient Wizard!

Dear Zoe, Are you planning to have a caterer outside of the area where the wedding is to take place transport everything to the site? Or are you considering re-locating the wedding?

Wonderful. I feel like something has happened to shift the crust of my reality and I am happy to dwell in the glow of Tammie's blog swelling up in between the cracks in the parched terrain called home in my mind. I feel like there's something possible in that dream of mine that one day in the small town where my mother perpetually awaits her yearly wheel of imported something - she will go for her morning walk, and stop idly by the creamery for a bit of something locally made to crumble on her luncheon salad. This dream has now been proven a possibility. (sorry for the rambling, reading Faulkner this week) Tammie those cheeses look amazing. What did you buy? What did you buy and what do you plan to do with it? That idea of the tasting sheet is a really great idea.