[Sca-cooks] pate, terrine and rillettes?

[Antonia Calvo]

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> 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.
>   

Actually, what you usually start with is liver.

> 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...
>   

Yup, definitely.  The pan can be lined with pastry, like a pie or with 
something else, like bacon or cabbage leaves.

> 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!!!!
>   

It can also be preserved by putting in containers and sealed under fat.  
You can sometimes buy it in little jars.

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

Charcuterie goes a little beyond that, of course...



-- 
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo

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Habeo metrum - musicamque,
hominem meam. Expectat alium quid?
-Georgeus Gershwinus
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