[Sca-cooks] pate, terrine and rillettes?

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

I love this group :)

Stefan asks about what the difference between pate, terrines and rillettes
are. 

as far as I can tell, a pate is a paste of foodstuffs (usually meat but I've
seen it done with veggies too). It can be smooth (pate de fois gras) or
chunky (pate de campagne).  You start with raw meat that is processed, and
then the moosh is cooked often with egg or cream, and often pressed to give
a meat loaf like texture.

A terrine is an assembly of foodstuffs, that has been pressed in a terrine.
These are often layered with pates as well as other interesting things
(vegetable terrines can be pretty) Terrines can be of pate, or not. I get
the impression that terrine is more about the pan its cooked in than
anything else...

Rillettes is (are?) a moosh of meat that has not been pressed. You start by
cooking the meat and then shredded it into tiny bits. A fair amt of gelatin
(pigs feet, etc) is in there too. Think the texture of sloppy joes. We ate A
LOT of duck and goose rillettes in the Dordogne. Yum!!!!

As far as my reading as taken me, the lines between these terms can be
blurry. A real French chef very likely would have a strong opinion on them
:)

If I had to come up with a catch all title, I think I'd call it charcuterie,
as the French do. 

Re: Johnnas reading of LaVarenne...great minds obviously think alike! :)

I had taken my copy of LaVarennes Cookery as bedtime reading last night but
unfortunately fell asleep before getting to the good bits :)

I think we're getting there!!! (tho one pound of meat + one pound of fat???
Wow......)

--Anne-Marie with visions of happy potted meat products dancing in her
head....