|
I wanted to post this in the charcuterie thread but it looks like it's archived. This summer, I went to Victoria BC and found a French bakery that made their own pates and terrines. I had never eaten a terrine, but as someone who's been really into making aged fruitcakes for a long while I got interested in the meat sort-of equivalent. Bought a couple of books, then finally got my poo poo together and assembled the ingredients: - chicken livers with all connective or clotty bits cut or squeezed out - boneless pork shoulder - duck breast - prosciutto - heavy cream - garlic and shallots - pepper, coriander, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon - pistachios - dried Rainier cherries - cognac - eggs - salt The livers and pork shoulder were easy to find, but the nicer groceries in town were out of duck breast, so I wound up going to the Asian supermarket and buying an entire duck and breaking it down myself. Never done that before! I think the duck knew. We had his smug thighs with new potatoes for dinner while the terrines cooled off.  The recipe I had found that I was using as a base for my own called for cooking down the duck breasts in order to render the fat, but in hindsight I would have left them raw when adding them to the terrine. I had more than enough fat and skin from the entire duck to fill a mason jar with fat and even made some chicharrones in the bargain. I've been using the fat to cook pretty much everything this past week. I cubed and then coarsely chopped the duck and pork in the food processor as one batch, then did the liver and garlic+shallots as a finer paste. Oh, and I used as whole as possible spices, toasted them up in a pan, and then ground them before adding them to the mix. The nutmeg seemed to be the champ of the bunch during final tasting.  I mixed everything by hand. I'm too cheap to buy actual terrine dishes, so I used small loaf pans. The idea was to fill them halfway with meat, then add a sprinkled layer of cherries and pistachios, then another layer of meat. I found that I prefer an even mix, so next time I make this I'm just going to combine everything (also, my layering technique sucked). The prosciutto is used to line the pan.  Once they were filled, I covered the entire thing with foil and stuck them in a pan that was halfway full of water and cooked them at around 300F for about 2 hours. Next time I plan to either drop the temp, or cook for less time, or do the exact same thing but use a probe thermometer so I can more accurately gauge things. It wasn't overcooked, but wasn't as smushy as I had imagined. I put a soda can in each of the two unused loaf pans, put them on top of the cooked terrines, and strapped them down with a rubber band to compress them. I made these on Sunday and have been letting them press and chill, but just unwrapped the sloppiest one. Really happy with the end result. It's not hard, just takes some time, and if you like being in the kitchen it's time well spent! Seriously, make a terrine. They're amazing. 
Siamang fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Nov 13, 2019 |
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 05:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 18:57 |
|
|
Looks delicious, and I like the pistachio and cherry layer, it gives it some interest. If you didn't want to layer it, it would make a good relish to go along with it if pulsed finely. I also believe that cognac is a vital ingredient of pates, terrines, and forcemeat generally. Add it to the meat, add it to a relish, stick it in your face, there's very little that can go wrong with even a middle shelf cognac.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 05:52
|
|
|
Thanks - the relish idea sounds like a better approach. Would it be overkill to use cognac in the terrine and also add a dribble to the relish? My gut says no.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 06:15
|
|
|
That duck looks like it has a plan in motion to kill you from beyond the grave.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 19:07
|
|
|
Siamang posted:Thanks - the relish idea sounds like a better approach. Would it be overkill to use cognac in the terrine and also add a dribble to the relish? My gut says no. Your gut is correct. Also, please use good brandy. I’ve cooked with Christian Bros and with XOs and it makes a world of difference (VSOPs distilled on the lees thread that needle).
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2020 22:33
|
|
