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 .

Terrines, mon amour

Until about a century ago, terrines and pâtés, specialties of the south west of France, were one of the few systems available to store food.

As often happened in the food history, making a virtue of necessity, these recipes have been improved becoming often masterpieces of gastronomy.

Today refrigerators and freezers prolong considerably food freshness and modern shipping methods easyly allow to have fresh food on our tables so terrines are only pure gluttony.

It is not strange anyway that these preparations are popular in France, though certainly due to many contributions from different sources. Since ancient times, in fact, ancient Gauls were particularly skilled in the preservation of meat, as says Strabo. There was many methods used, as I will tell in future posts.

Making a terrine is neither difficult nor challenging but certainly requires time, especially for cooking. The base is a filling where meat is cut more or less thick and there's quite a lot of fat meat and animal fat. This filling will sink undamaged parts of flesh and entrails. The whole, well disposed in a bowl covered and sealed, should be cooked to medium-low temperature for at least 3 hours. The fat meat is essential and typically the animal fat that melts during cooking will cover the meat, sealing te filling that can, this way, will last longer.

The terrine described here today is based on wild rabbit, that in France they call Lapin de Garenne.

This recipe comes from Périgord, a region north of Toulouse and Montauban, famous for truffles and good food

Terrine of rabbit

Ingredients:

• A rabbit, chopped, or ½ rabbit and the corresponding weight of turkey breast.
• One or two slices of fresh bacon.
• 1 or 2 chicken livers, or one or two slices of calf liver.
• Few shallots
• 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of flour
• Brandy
• 2 bay leaves
• Quatre épices
• Slices of bacon, or rather sweet pork lard not smoked

Clean the rabbit, keeping aside the innards (liver, heart and kidneys) that you will put together to the chicken giblets. Take completelycand carefully off the bones. Put asideto the best parts of the meat. Coarsely chop the rest of the meat. If you use also the meat of turkey, mix the minced rabbit.

Let giblets in cold water for about 15 minutes, changing several times the water so that all the blood in it comes out.

I use generally to massage chicken livers with a mixture of table salt and sugar and after I let it rest for at least ½ hour or longer. This treatment will greatly softens the flavor by removing a large part of their strong taste. At the end rinse them again with cold water.

Choise the better portions of chicken liver and add them to the rabbit meat that you had set aside and mince the resto of them with the bacon. Stir fry quickly in a pan the minced meat with some goose fat or eventually with a little butter .

Stir fry with some finely sliced shallot the chopped bacon and crushed chicken livers. Then add the minced meat of rabbit, mix well and season with ginger powder or with cinnamon, nutmeg , cloves and pepper (the so-called quatre épices ) as I do quite often. Moisten with a glass of brandy, thicken with 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 egg yolk and salt.

Before assembling, stir fry quickly the meat and liver that had put aside, fiammeggiandole with white wine or brandy. Set aside . Saltate velocemente in tegame anche le parti di carne e di fegato che avevate messo da parte, blazing with white wine or brandy and set aside.

Now, finally, take a oval mold suitable for pâtés or a Pyrex mold for plum-cake.

Arrange on bottom 2 bay leaves and then coated the bottom and edges with the slices of sweet bacon. Make a first layer of minced meat and place orderly on it the meat and the livers you have set aside, cut into rectangular sticks. Garnish here and there with some pistachio and also with a few slices of truffle, if you have any.

Cover with another layer of minced meat. Depending on the size of the pieces of meat you can do one or two layers. Finish with the stuffing that you will cover with the last slices of bacon.

Above all moisten with 2 tablespoons of brandy.

Tightly close the mold for pâtés welding the lid with a glue made by mixing thoroughly flour and water or close the plum cake mold with an aluminum foil in which you will make a small hole to allow steam to escape (the terrine for pâtés have a small breather in their lid).

Cook bain marie in the oven at 150°C for about 3 hours.

After cooking let cool. Then, remove the lid and pour some goose fat or some good pork fat melted, to fill the gaps sealing everything.

Close again with its lid and seal the edges with aluminum foil.

This bowl, in a cool place, will keep well for 2 or 3 weeks and even more.

Perfect accompaniment may be small pickles, a salad of mixed lettuce or some good sauce as wine sauce, sauce Chasseur or, better, a Périgueux sauce flavored with truffles. I'll talk of these sauce in some future post.

This terrine is a good appetizer in a formal dining but it's gorgeous for a quick breakfast, in all intimacy with friends.