I am testig Meat Pies

I am testing meat pies. In fact, it is a long time I am doing this, but considering that we are near  Christmas, these tests have taken a certain acceleration.

Pâté of my experiment are made by meat and poultry and especially liver which, in recent months I've cooked quite often.

It is not something new. I've always loved these meat pies because they are gorgeous when they are good, and finally not particularly difficult if we are well organized .

The final result is every time better and better and superior to the effort and cost.

It is convenient  to clear some misunderstanding thet you can find on the net, many of which are created by a certain linguistic ignorance, to give precise information

One of the best sources of information is Wikipedia, which is not always completely reliable when talking about foods and recipes.

First, the name: Pâté is a dish prepared by combining different ingredients mixed together.

Today they are a specialty of French cuisine but we find various Pâté in different European national cuisines .

Until less than a century ago, they were part of the few systems available to our ancestors to preserve food.

French have the best references about them because their ancestors, Celts and Gauls, were known to be excellent in preservation of meat, as mentioned by many ancient authors such as Polybius, Cato and Pliny. Strabo in the first century BC wrote that Gaul was a country where people were able to preserve meat. It is not strange that over there we find excellent confits and terrines.

Today that storage and transport are no longer a problem, these preparations belong only to the domain of gluttony .

Generally the mixture of a meat pies is rather coarse, even it is not a rule.
In the past, they were often wrapped in dough and dipped in jelly. Sometimes inside there was even whole portions of meat.

Terrines and mousses are always pâtés. Terrines are prepared, as the name implies, in their own container and mousses are generally very refined and spreadable. Making a mousse, was in the part very challenging because the mixture was sifted by hand, but todayeverything it is more easy because we have blenders, food processors and mixers. Mousse contains always also a large amount of butter .