Ain’t No Pâté Like A Charcutepalooza Pâté

So for this month’s pâté and terrine project, I vacillated back and forth between a few ideas and then decided to make all of them. I had invited over a bunch of food writer/blogger types, so I figured quantity and variety would both be desirable. I emailed Northwind Farm and placed an order for a duck, a rabbit, and a pork butt, and picked them up at the weekly market here in town. Over the course of a couple of days, I turned the three things into three different pâtés, using a couple of tricks I’ve learned in my couple of years of terrine making, and which really do improve the results dramatically.

First, I took apart the rabbit, jointing it and cutting as much meat off the skeleton as I could. I could have done a more thorough job, but I knew I wanted to make rabbit stock so I didn’t sweat the meat I left behind. The rabbit also came with all its offal stuffed back inside, which was most welcome.

I ground all the organs along with the meat, adding in about a third as much pork fat since rabbit is about as lean as meat gets. To this mixture I added salt, pepper, and a generous sprinkling of the dried spruce tips. After a quenelle test, it needed more salt and spruce, and some acid; I added some of the cider/spruce vinegar that’s not fully fermented but still pretty damn good.

The duck met a fate very similar to the rabbit: jointed, de-meated, and ground up with its offal (though I saved the neck for stock) and a bit of pork fat because it doesn’t liquify quite as easily as duck fat when cooking. I added several stalks of rhubarb that I had cooked sous vide with maple syrup and blackcurrant vinegar back in the spring, and which defrosted during the post-Irene power failure so it needed using up. This combination actually arose when we took a duck leg and this bag of rhubarb to Vermont with us, and I needed to stretch it to feed five people, so I made confit with the leg and then shredded it up with some of the rhubarb and scallions and garlic and make it into wontons that I poached gently in some chicken-grilled lamb stock.

Duck and rhubarb go very very well together, as I learned back in rhubarb season, and these wontons were badass. I wanted to the terrine to have that same spark of bright acidity cutting through the rich, fatty duck. Speaking of the neck, the bird had the full neck skin still on the carcass, so for the taste test I actually stuffed the mixture into the neck skin tube and cooked it for lunch. I adjusted salt and pepper, and added more of the vinegar to balance the acidity and that was the duck.

The pork shoulder got a more complex seasoning which included many components that were alas not micro-local like the spruce and rhubarb. But it ended up tasting really good. After grinding meat and fat, I added Korean pepper powder, kimchi brine, gochujang, lots of grated ginger and garlic, and minced shiso leaves. Another quenelle test, another adjustment–this time of spiciness–and the addition of some fish sauce, shochu, and rice vinegar, and it too was done.

After I had the mixes right, I made a panade with panko and a couple of egg yolks, beating it until smooth. I folded this into all three. I use yolks in cases like this, and for gnocchi, because they bind without imparting the stiffness that whites bring to the party. The result, especially when cooked sous vide, is soft and spreadable instead of crumbly and rubbery. I packed the three meat mixtures into these little loaf pans I bought for just such a purpose and vacuum-sealed them all. This compacts the meat nicely, and the vacuum acts like a weight after cooking, holding the terrine nice and tight so there’s no need to mess around with tomato cans or bricks and cardboard and foil and such overnight.

The main reason to cook terrines sous vide is that they never rise above the 150˚F/65.5˚C that I set the circulator at. As a result, rather than messing around with a bain-Marie in a hot oven, you slide the bagged pans into the bath and forget about them for six hours. The meat cooks until meltingly tender, and little of the fat melts and breaks out. The results are creamy and spreadable, with none of the grainy or fibrous textures that can occur in oven-baked pâtés. Seriously, the difference is night and day. Try it, especially using only yolks in your panade: it’s a creamy, sensual delight.

To accompany this trio of treats, I baked a sourdough boule and pulled out the most recent camembert and a variety of pickles: dill, cornichons, kimchi, and wild garlic. So the appetizer spread was 100 percent homemade (except for the mustard) and pretty damn tasty.

Among our guests were Eve, who sadly had to leave early, Kim, who you all know as the co-genius behind this delicious internet carnage meme, and Jonathan, who wrote Beaten, Seared and Sauced, which I mentioned in my book roundup article back in August. The kids got along famously, and the big people mostly talked shit about all the bloggers who didn’t come even though they were totally invited.

For the main meal, I smoked a couple of chickens, made pesto polenta, broke out some of the smoky hot sauce, and made a vinaigrette for the salad greens that Kim brought. I also made two tarts: pear and peach, both with a maple-crabapple glaze. We ate just about everything that wasn’t nailed down.

The best thing about making these in quantity was the leftovers. The Kid clamored for pâté sandwiches in his lunch on Monday, making sure I knew he wanted one rabbit and one pork but no duck. (Kim’s kids, amusingly, loved the duck but not the other two). And there’s nothing I like more for lunch than a salad and some creamy pâté on toast. And there’s still a whole other pork terrine in the fridge, just waiting to be unwrapped.

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18 Comments

  1. September 15, 2011

    Love it even tnough you are a curmudgeon.

  2. I TOTALLY resent that!!!!! As my first day off the couch after several days of forced bed rest, after a very not fun surgery, all I have to say is :-p

    yes, I’m sticking my tongue out, because well, I don’t know, but I totally wanted to be there! Next time, next time. 😉

  3. September 15, 2011

    This was an awesome night. We had the best time, all of us. And the duck pate was my fav, too! The kids are asking for pate in their school lunch.

    By the way, I have 100 pictures of Milo, all making the kung foo master face. Boys.

    xo Kim

  4. September 15, 2011

    Thanks again for the invite! My vote was firmly for the pork terrine.

  5. September 15, 2011

    Oh, Peter. The first two pictures made me happy in a way I probably shouldn’t speak about out loud. The pickled ramps in the first photo, and the photo of the rabbit carcass, which evokes animal and food in a single plain image. Plus it all looks tasty. And, that sous-vide machine, wow. Altogether beautiful!

  6. September 15, 2011

    I really really need to step up to the 21st century and get a sous vide machine. I love the idea of the super slow cook to get everything out of the meat. I just larded some veal and cooked it low and slow and was crazy about the result… positively juicy. Even better if I could have done it your way!

    I will definitely take you up on your offer for a visit next time I go up north if I can have some of that pate!!!

  7. September 15, 2011

    I fully deserve (and expected) to be made fun of. And the cause of my absence is on my shit list, for sure. One can only dream that this may happen again sometime, and that I might have yet another chance.

  8. September 15, 2011

    These look spectacular. My pate did nothing for me, but I’d certainly try yours. A great application of sous vide. Congratulations!

  9. September 15, 2011

    Oh my! Got any leftovers still? Maybe some of that smoked chicken and polenta too while you’re at it. I think I can get to your place in a couple of hours. You can keep the rabbit one. Not fond of rabbit. Pork and duck call myname on a daily basis though.

  10. Peter
    September 15, 2011

    Janis: You love me because I’m a curmudgeon.

    Jessica: Yes, next time.

    Kim: We loved having you. I can’t wait to see those pics.

    Eve: I’m glad you liked it. It was especially good with the kimchi.

    Mosaica: Your happiness that dare not speak its name is always welcome here.

    Deana: Of course you can, if there’s any left. If not I’ll make you another one.

    Barbara: Thanks for saying it. A lot.

    Julia: Aaaw. We said SOME nice things about you.

    Lynn: Try again. It took me a few tries before I figured it out.

    Rachel: The rabbit was pretty great, especially with spruce. You might change your mind.

  11. September 15, 2011

    Are those standard-sized loaf pans?

  12. September 15, 2011

    Thanks for making it painfully clear that we live in the sticks, far, far from foodie company. Sounds like a good time was had by all and that mad scientist souse-vide rig has me speechless!

    Loved it as usual 🙂

  13. September 16, 2011

    The rabbit and spruce sounds outstanding. I’ll have to try the sous vide and egg yolk technique as my own pate is almost always a spectacular failure. Great read.

  14. Peter
    September 16, 2011

    David: No, they’re little ones.

    Jackie: David just above you there built it for me.

    Jake: Yes, give it a try. I think you’ll be pleased.

  15. September 20, 2011

    So, I was thinking that pate was more liver based and terrine was more meatloaf-ish. Set me straight? I’ve been wanting to try both as I’m learning my way to finding ingredients where I live now.

  16. Peter
    September 21, 2011

    I asked some authorities and the verdict was: uuuh. Not sure there’s a salient difference, other than pâté means “paste” like pasta does and a terrine can actually be made of almost anything, including stuff that isn’t ground up first.

  17. […] few months ago, I made a trio of pâtés that included one made from rabbit and spruce. While the duck and pork terrines were more popular, […]

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