The Terrine Topic

[avaserfi]

I served this as a cheese course/dessert combo. To make it, I set a mixture of a nice quality honey (100%) and water (100%) with agar (0.8%) and guar gum (0.4%) adding the inlays as desired right before it set. To serve, I just heated it up in a warm oven.

I used both agar and guar to get a more tender texture than using agar alone which allows for a heat stable gel, but one that is more brittle than I find pleasant for such an application.

Full recipe is here: http://www.consumedgourmet.com/2011/12/honey-terrine.html

[Jmahl]

Pork and Chicken Terrine recipe from the NYT December 11, 2011 edition

Very nice. Ground a part of the pork and chicken in my KitchenAid grinder and hand cut about a third for texture. The results are impressive although I will increase the spices the next time.

[FrogPrincesse]

Beautiful Pork and Chicken Terrine, Jmahl! The condiments are a nice touch (are these pickled red onions?).

I made another version of terrine de campagne for the holidays using the recipe from the Régalade restaurant in Paris (I found the recipe in French here): Terrine de campagne de la Régalade.

The recipe is characterized by a large amount of pork liver, which seems to be traditional for a rustic terrine de campagne, and the inclusion of cream that the Baron had recommended upthread for texture. The meat to liver ratio is similar to that of the Les Halles recipe that I tried some time ago (2.5:1 compared to 2:1 for Les Halles).

The recipe calls for pork throat (gorge) which I was not able to find. But I used a very fatty shoulder that I decided to use as is (with no additional fat). I was very disappointed not to find pork liver at my butcher shop but 99 Ranch had plenty of it (and it was fresh too, not frozen).

The seasoning is very basic with just some (raw) onion and garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.

I used plastic film instead of the caul fat that can be hard to find.

I almost doubled the recipe which produced a huge amount. But when I realized I could just slice the terrine and freeze the leftovers, I was very happy with my decision - semi-instant pâté for cocktail parties!

Here is a picture of the terrines going into the oven. I didn't bother to use a waterbath that some recipes call for, as a low-temperature oven works great and is much less hassle.

After a couple of hours, the terrine is ready.

Charcuterie plate, with some homemade saucisson sec and cornichons.

The terrine tasted quite livery the day after it was made (maybe partially because I knew how much liver had gone into it?). I found that the flavors started to blend and mellow after 4-5 days at which point I felt it tasted best. This recipe is a keeper!

[Jmahl]

Beautiful Pork and Chicken Terrine, Jmahl! The condiments are a nice touch (are these pickled red onions?).

Thanks for the nice words. No they are not onions but red cabbage. Don't you just love cooking these things?

[Baron d'Apcher]

Duck and Sour Cherry Pâté en Croûte

Pork Pâté en Croûte with Dried Apples Soaked in Calvados.

Pork Pâtés, Figs & Pistachios, Tucked in with Caul Fat and Bacon.

[thirtyoneknots]

Nothing on the level of the Baron's artistry, but I decided a rabbit terrine would make a good Easter hors d'ouvre, which in the process of improvising became a "Looney Tunes" terrine with pork, rabbit, and duck. Did a forcemeat of rabbit legs, pork shoulder, pork fat, and duck livers. Rabbit loins became an inlay, and a garniture of cubed smoked duck breast, fatback, pistachios, and rinsed brined green peppercorns. Easily my most successful terrine to date, shown here as lunch with dijon, cornichons, and a cucumber salad with Greek yogurt.

Edited April 11, 2012 by thirtyoneknots (log)

[Baron d'Apcher]

Well played Thirtyoneknots.

Pork and Apricot Pâté en Croûte. Pistachios, heart, smoked belly and tongue.

Precision incision.

Through pastry flavored glasses

(Insert savory emoticon)

[Jmahl]

Baron: Your creations are works of art. Bravo.

[Baron d'Apcher]

They are enjoyable to fabricate and a testament to passion, discipline, artistry and technique. Not perfect, but getting better.

Alina Duck, it's confit gizzards, pistachios and apricots in savory pastry.

[thirtyoneknots]

Last time I made a big batch of confit I tossed all the hearts and gizzards into the mix, and Baron's work inspired me to add them to a duck terrine. The complexity and richness they add is incredible, the only downside is that I used all of them up. If I remember to take a picture next time I'm eating it I'll post it up. Cool color contrast, too.

Baron, do you add nitrite cure to your confit giblets? They look rather more pink than mine (I added cure to the forcemeat only).

[Baron d'Apcher]

Baron, do you add nitrite cure to your confit giblets? They look rather more pink than mine (I added cure to the forcemeat only).

Indeed. Cured for 2 days then confit in duck fat.

Berkshire pork and Randall-Lineback veal pâté

with corned veal tongue, confit heart, smoked belly, toasted Marcona almonds and gin-soaked currants.

Randall-Lineback terrine. Corned cheeks, shanks, tail and brisket.

Worcestershire aspic, horseradish, red onion and salted capers. With a poached then pickled quail egg.

[thirtyoneknots]

My previously mentioned duck terrine:

Forcemeat is pork, duck leg, and duck liver. Inlay of breast meat and tenderloins. Garniture of diced confit of duck giblets, fatback, smoked ham of modest origin, and pistachios. Depicted here as part of my lunch which I usually eat at my desk. Accompanied by coarse grain dijon, cornichons, cucumber salad, and (not shown) homemade pickled asparagus that probably have entirely too much garlic in them.

[Baron d'Apcher]

Salmon terrine.

Wild Alaskan king salmon and lobster. An inlay of striped bass and Old Bay. Gravad-laks (crusted with dill, fennel seed, mustard seed, lemon zest) and Madeira aspic.

Difficult to tell from the picture, but the inlay is perfectly circular and centered. Next version will have a lightening bread panade and vermouth seasoning.

[Toufas]

Ι am trying to recreate a dish into a terrine. The dish can be described as a celery leaves and pork stew. Any ideas on how can I recreate that? I was thinking that I could do a standard pork shoulder terrine and serve it with a light celeriac remoulade, but I am worried that the terrine would be a bit tough.

[thirtyoneknots]

Ι am trying to recreate a dish into a terrine. The dish can be described as a celery leaves and pork stew. Any ideas on how can I recreate that? I was thinking that I could do a standard pork shoulder terrine and serve it with a light celeriac remoulade, but I am worried that the terrine would be a bit tough.

What makes you concerned about toughness? Tough to cut/chew or difficult to execute? or are you talking about something where the pork is cooked and served as a whole muscle not ground first?

[Toufas]

Ι am trying to recreate a dish into a terrine. The dish can be described as a celery leaves and pork stew. Any ideas on how can I recreate that? I was thinking that I could do a standard pork shoulder terrine and serve it with a light celeriac remoulade, but I am worried that the terrine would be a bit tough.

What makes you concerned about toughness? Tough to cut/chew or difficult to execute? or are you talking about something where the pork is cooked and served as a whole muscle not ground first?

I was thinking about using the whole muscle, as I wouldn't want the texture of ground meat (reminding me of a meat loaf), so yes toughness of meat or dryness are my fears.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Toufas (log)

[Mjx]

I was thinking about using the whole muscle, as I wouldn't want the texture of ground meat (reminding me of a meat loaf), so yes toughness of meat or dryness are my fears.

Would first cooking the meat at a low gentle temperature, then composing it in the terrine with the other ingredients be an option? Once you've cooked meat to tenderness, the chances of toughening it up by further cooking it are very much reduced.

[Toufas]

That wouldnt't be a problem, as I have sous vide equipment. Any recipes or ideas based on that? It doesn't need to be shoulder, but I would prefer a cheap cut of meat.

[Mjx]

There's the Sous Vide Pork Shoulder topic.

[Toufas]

yes, but after that? How do i make it into a terrine? Chop up the meat and use some concentrated stock or fat to bind it?

[Mjx]

One of the terrine queens or kings in this thread is going to have better suggestions than I probably would (I'd be inclined to dice the cooked pork, and re:stock, veal stock would proably be a good idea, nice and gelatinous, and goes well with pork; or, you could add a little gelatine, if veal stock was out of the question; you could do somthing xtremely attractive with the celery leaves, or you might look into lovage, too).

My inclination would be to check back through this thread for some ideas, and if nothing solidly helpful emerged, and I couldn't find a really good recipe in my cook books, I'd PM one of the participants in this thread for sources/recipes.

If I come across anything that looks promising, I'll post it.

[thirtyoneknots]

I should point out that this is now veering in the direction of a head cheese if you're binding chopped meat with gelatinous stock. I love head cheese and all, but is that the effect you are shooting for?

Why not go more in the direction of a jambon perseille if you want to do a whole muscle preparation? Cure (if desired) and cook your pork, SV or otherwise, then glaze with an aspic and include the celery leaves there.

Or just do a normal terrine. It's not clear from your post whether you have made a terrine before, but in my own opinion the similarities to meatloaf are highly superficial, and mostly in the execution--not the flavor or texture

[Baron d'Apcher]

While sous-vide cookery has its merits (very few) using boil-in-a-bag for the purpose of making a terrine from the entire contents it contrived and a waste of plastic. Similar if not better results can be obtained by simmering the brined pork in seasoned water (salt, aromatics) until tender, clarifying the liquid with egg whites and then adding 8-10% gelatin by weight to the amount needed, as with the Randall-Lineback terrine up-thread. Excess clarified liquid can frozen and reused at a later time. Very difficult to check for tenderness with sous-vide and that method won’t generate enough liquid. And sous-vide simply has no soul. Jambon persillé should indeed be the guiding star.

Consider brining the pork, simmering, cool in the liquid, clarify, glue, dice meat and pack in a terrine with celery leaves. Alternatively, you can blend some blanched celery and/or leaves and purée them with the clarified liquid before adding the gelatin so as to create a pale green liquid evoking the celery leaves. Or you can pick/dice the meat while it is still warm and press it in a mold. It will stick together like a conglomerate, similar to boneless "Jambonneau" (pork shank, simmered, rubbed in lard and rolled in bread crumbs)

Gilles Verot. Paris, France

When making a chicken terrine, I blanch the poultry and simmer it in a white wine and tarragon court boullion with carrots and parsnips. The stock is clarified, “glued” with gelatin and encases the picked chicken meat, the aforementioned carrots & parsnips, gizzards, mustard seeds and celery leaves.

[thirtyoneknots]

While sous-vide cookery has its merits (very few) using boil-in-a-bag for the purpose of making a terrine from the entire contents it contrived and a waste of plastic. Similar if not better results can be obtained by simmering the brined pork in seasoned water (salt, aromatics) until tender, clarifying the liquid with egg whites and then adding 8-10% gelatin by weight to the amount needed, as with the Randall-Lineback terrine up-thread. Excess clarified liquid can frozen and reused at a later time. Very difficult to check for tenderness with sous-vide and that method won’t generate enough liquid. And sous-vide simply has no soul. Jambon persillé should indeed be the guiding star.

I'm interested to see you call for powdered/leaf gelatin rather than adding some shanks or something to the braising liquid (and then reducing). Is this an economy measure or do you think there's not enough difference in flavor or texture to justify the expense?

[Toufas]

While sous-vide cookery has its merits (very few) using boil-in-a-bag for the purpose of making a terrine from the entire contents it contrived and a waste of plastic. Similar if not better results can be obtained by simmering the brined pork in seasoned water (salt, aromatics) until tender, clarifying the liquid with egg whites and then adding 8-10% gelatin by weight to the amount needed, as with the Randall-Lineback terrine up-thread. Excess clarified liquid can frozen and reused at a later time. Very difficult to check for tenderness with sous-vide and that method won’t generate enough liquid. And sous-vide simply has no soul. Jambon persillé should indeed be the guiding star.

Consider brining the pork, simmering, cool in the liquid, clarify, glue, dice meat and pack in a terrine with celery leaves. Alternatively, you can blend some blanched celery and/or leaves and purée them with the clarified liquid before adding the gelatin so as to create a pale green liquid evoking the celery leaves. Or you can pick/dice the meat while it is still warm and press it in a mold. It will stick together like a conglomerate, similar to boneless "Jambonneau" (pork shank, simmered, rubbed in lard and rolled in bread crumbs)

When making a chicken terrine, I blanch the poultry and simmer it in a white wine and tarragon court boullion with carrots and parsnips. The stock is clarified, “glued” with gelatin and encases the picked chicken meat, the aforementioned carrots & parsnips, gizzards, mustard seeds and celery leaves.

Actually this is exactly what I am after. I checked your blog for recipes but I couldn't find any!

Also, which book should I get for terrines? Will charcuterie from ruhlman and rolycyn cover what I need?