Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (138 page)

For a 9- by 1½- to 2-inch round mold, serving 12 to 16 people

1)
The pâté ingredients

The
pain brioché
dough mixture, chilled and ready to form

8 ounces (1 cup) fresh pork fatback or fat from outside a loin roast

A 12-inch frying pan

2 cups minced onions

8 ounces (1 cup) fresh pork shoulder or loin

1 lb. (2 cups) liver (pork, beef, or calf)

1 medium clove of garlic, mashed

Either
1 tsp
épices fines
;

Or
½ tsp pepper and big pinches of ground allspice, thyme and bay leaf

¼ tsp additional pepper

2 tsp salt

¼ cup (pressed down) dry white crumbs from homemade-type unsweetened bread, moistened in a small bowl with 3 Tb heavy cream and 1 Tb Cognac

Prepare the dough the day before baking. Put the pork fat through the medium blade of the meat grinder. Place half in bowl of electric mixer and heat other half slowly in frying pan until fat has rendered. Add onions to pan and cook slowly about 15 minutes until tender and translucent. Meanwhile, grind the pork and set aside, then the liver, and set aside separately. When onions are done, add the pork and cook 4 to 5
minutes, stirring, until meat is gray rather than rosy. Add the liver and cook for several minutes until somewhat stiffened and puffed, and beginning to look grayish-ruddy-brown. Scrape into mixing bowl and beat in all the rest of the ingredients. Sauté a spoonful and taste; correct seasoning as necessary.

2)
Forming the pâté en brioche

A buttered 9- by 1½-inch (6-cup) false-bottomed cake pan or fluted mold; or a
flan
ring set on a baking sheet

The chilled dough

A piece of floured waxed paper on a small baking sheet

The hot meat mixture

A pastry brush

Cold water

A 2-inch chimney, such as a small, buttered metal funnel or the metal tube from a pastry bag

On a lightly floured board, roll ¼ of the dough into a circle the diameter of your pan or mold, set on floured paper, and chill until needed. Rapidly roll out the rest of the dough into a circle about ¼ inch thick and 12 inches in diameter. Lightly press it into the pan or mold, letting edges overhang all around. Turn the hot meat mixture into the dough-lined pan; fold the edges of the dough over onto the meat. Paint dough lightly with cold water, and unroll reserved circle of dough on top, pressing edges lightly with your fingers to seal. Make a hole in the center top of the dough and insert chimney. (You will probably have enough dough left over for a small loaf of bread.)

3)
Rising—about 1 hour

Set the
pâté
in a draft-free place at a temperature of no more than 75 to 80 degrees until top of dough feels spongy-springy when touched and the whole structure has risen half an inch or more up from the rim of the mold. Preheat oven in time for next step.

4)
Baking—about 1 hour in a preheated 425-degree oven

Egg glaze (1 egg beaten in a small bowl with 1 tsp water)

Sharp-pointed scissors

Useful: a meat thermometer

Just before baking, paint top (not sides) of dough with egg glaze; in a moment, paint it again. Make scissor clips 1½ inches apart all around top circumference of dough, going in at a slant ¾ inch deep and 2 inches wide. Set
pâté
in middle level of preheated 425-degree oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until
brioche
has risen and begun to brown nicely. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, baking about 40 minutes more.
Pâté
is done when fat is bubbling up in funnel; temperature on meat thermometer should be 160–5 degrees.

5)
Cooling

Remove from oven and let cool in mold for half an hour, then unmold onto a rack. When thoroughly cold, cover airtight and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving.

6)
Serving suggestions

Serve as is, cutting it into wedges like a pie. When you wish an even more attractive dish, pour almost-set aspic into chilled
pâté
through chimney hole, and chill an hour or more before serving. (This is described in the
pâté en croûte
section.)

A PORKLESS VARIATION

La Terrine Verte—Pâté Sans Porc

[A Porkless Pâté]

Slice into this unusual
pâté,
and it is a beautiful green with decorations of white and brown. It has a meaty, hearty taste, yet is made without a trace of pork meat or pork fat: it is veal, chicken, and calf’s brains spiced with onions, garlic, herbs, and Cognac, garnished with chicken breasts and livers, and turned green with spinach. The fat is either veal- or beef-kidney fat, or goose or chicken fat. Bake the
pâté
at least 2 and preferably 3 days before serving, so that all the flavors may blend into perfect harmony.

For an 8-cup terrine, serving 12 to 16

1)
The pâté mixture

The boned and skinned breast from 1 frying chicken

3 chicken livers

¼ cup Cognac

Salt and pepper

Cut the breast meat and the chicken livers into strips ⅜ inch wide; place in a bowl with the Cognac and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Let marinate while preparing rest of
pâté
mixture.