[Sca-cooks] Pate = Period?

[Stefan li Rous]

Nancy Kiel commented:
> Are you thinking about how pate is made, or how it is used?  Because sausage
> would seem to me to be a sort of pate, but I always think of modern-day pate
> as being something you spread on bread or crackers, which I don't think was
> done in period.

It seems we had a similar discussion earlier this year, although I don't
think there was a definative consensus reached on exactly a pate was
or was not.


Here are a couple of messages that I remembered being in the spreads-msg

(hush Phlip), that I just finished editing last night. When it
gets uploaded to the Florilegium site, the file will be in the
FOOD-CONDIMENTS section:

spreads-msg       (12K) 11/29/02    Period spreads for bread. recipes.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 10:30:37 -0600
> From: Chip <jallen at multipro.com>
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pate
>
>> So, do all pates have liver in them?
>
> I had wondered this myself & I found the answer to be: no.  Pate (or
> if it won't display for you -- pate with a ^ over the a) is French for
> "paste".  Liver, mushroom, olive, whatever.
>
> When I recently tinkered with Livyre Puddings I was explaining to
> people that since I wasn't stuffing it into sausage casings, it was
> being served as a pate.  And since I subbed chicken livers for pork,
> it had ceased to be a period dish & had become a based-on-a-period
> dish, or perioid.
>
>>  If not, what is the differance between a "pate" and a "spread"?
>> THLord Stefan li Rous
>
> Quality, I'd say.  The delectable goop I wound up with during testing,
> I'd be proud to call a pate.  The underseasoned, bitter mush I turned
> out at feast barely qualified as a spread.  I was so disappointed.
>
> To sum up:
> Pate de foie gras: pate.
> Armour Potted Meat Food Product: spread.
>
> So as not be a spontieser:
>
> Livyre Puddings
> chicken liver, bread crumbs, butter, currants, nutmeg, black pepper,
> salt
>
> [Good Hous-wives Treasurie, 1588]
> "How to make Livering Puddinges.  Take the Liver of a Hogge, and give
> it three or fower warmes over the fier.  Then either grate or choppe
> it verye small, and take a little grated bread and two egges well
> beaten, whites and all, and Currans, Nutmegges, Pepper, and Salte, and
> Hogges suet." (From "The Good Hous-Wives Treasurie", on p.40 of TTQT)
>
> My adaptation:
> Boil a plastic tub-ful of rinsed chicken livers (roughly a pound) in
> salted water until cooked.  Drain and puree in a food processor.  Add
> butter until smooth (about a stick), add currants until sweet enough
> (about a handful), add bread crumbs to give it some body, add nutmeg,
> ground pepper, & salt.  Don't be afraid of the seasonings.  It takes
> quite a bit for the flavor to come through.  Most say to chill until
> serving, but I prefer it served immediately (warm).  If you chill it,
> it becomes very dense and a bit crumbly.  When reheated, the texture
> becomes weirdly fluffy.
>
> A recipe of this & a box of not-too salty crackers or crusty bread --
> add the beverage of your choice & some good friends.  Quality time.
>
> It has been put forth on this very list (by Adamantius, I believe) that
> given the ingredients, tone & the label "pudding", this was meant to
> be stuffed in sausage casing & boiled.  You just don't put raw suet in
> a finished product.  I agree.
>
> I have read adaptations which subbed chicken for pork for
> convenience's sake, left out the raw egg for safety's sake (though
> I've never known anyone who got sick from raw egg -- maybe those days
> are over) & subbed butter for suet -- and I have drawn upon them.
>
> Test batches turned out loverly.  I forgot to salt the boiling water on
> feast day.  Disaster.  No more will I scoff at the idea that boiling in
> salted water takes out the bitterness.  I wonder if it works on
> friends?
>
> Iyad
>
>
> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 10:42:55 -0600
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> From: Gorgeous Muiredach <muiredach at bmee.net>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pate
>
>>To sum up:
>>Pate de foie gras: pate.
>
> Except that pate de foie gras isn't necessarily a paste...  The recipe I'm
> using leaves the foie gras whole, not processed at all.
>
> Gorgeous Muiredach
> Rokkehealden Shire
> Middle Kingdom
> aka
> Nicolas Steenhout


--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****