Pâtés, terrines, rillettes, chopped liver etc.

[lagatta]

I don't find a thread on making all these starter or spread foods made from finely-chopped or puréed meat and poultry, especially but not only livers.

Imagine that similar non-meat dishes such as vegetarian chopped liver could go here too, but I wouldn't tend to include the much larger family of dips and spreads (such as hummus).

I was making chopped liver from duck livers and came across this Hungarian recipe that was a bit spicier than most:

allrecipes.com/recipe/vals-hungarian-jewish-chopped-liver/

She says not to add or substitute any other liver, but that doesn't sound historically accurate - any POULTRY liver is fine. Duck livers have much heart-healthier fat than their chicken cousins. Goose livers would also be traditional.

No, of course I wouldn't make this with beef or even lamb liver (though there are very good pâtés and terrines made from the latter.

And pork liver would obviously be out of the question, though many other pâtés are made in whole or part from it.

[kerouac2]

I made my own pâté this week. I bought a big bag of pork bones at the Chinese supermarket and boiled them for a few hours until I could strip all of the meat off. Then I put the meat in my food processor with a small onion, some whole black peppercorns, flat parsley, an egg and various other spices. Mixed it all up and put it in an oven dish. I baked it like a cake -- I decided it was done when it was semi-firm after testing with a knife point.

To my surprise, the seasoning turned out to be perfect. I am always afraid of things being too salty or not salty enough or some other spice being wrong, but I got lucky. The whole thing cost only about one euro.

[casimira]

That's impressive Kerouac.

I always wonder how if I lived alone what lengths would I go to make a dish like that. Although, the recipe sounds east enough, I suppose I might cook something similar.

My question is do you freeze part of it or does it last refrigerated long enough before it "turns".?

I know you have a hefty appetite and have seen enough pics with huge amounts of food so I suspect it will be gone in just a few days.

[kerouac2]

The first photo makes it look much bigger than it really is. It just makes only about five or six slices of the size on the plate, so not enough to freeze.

[tod2]

I'm buckling under pressure from your photo Kerouac....It's time I attempted another terrine.

[casimira]

I'm tempted to make one but then I remembered that a lot of our cookware is in storage and the idea of turning on the oven in this heat also a deterrent.


Cool weather food...

[lugg]

Yum

[bixaorellana]

Actually, tempting as Kerouac's pâté is, it could be turned into an abbreviated warm-weather version requiring no oven. That is, assemble the cooked meats & seasonings, chilling them together in the refrigerator to meld the flavors, then putting them into molds and pouring gelatin over them. www.food.com/recipe/aspic-for-pates-terrines-67693

[kerouac2]

The only reason I put mine in the oven was because I added raw onion and raw egg. Otherwise, I would have just chilled it like Bixa says. In fact that was my original intention and I bought some packets of gelatin powder which I will use on something else in the future.

[bixaorellana]

I probably shouldn't admit this, but every time I look at the title of this thread, "Pâtés, terrines, rillettes, chopped liver etc.", I think of Fran Lebowitz.

In her book Social Studies, she includes a "Glossary of Words Used By Poorer People" in which meatloaf is defined as A gloriously rough kind of pâté.