Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (136 page)

The fat-rendering and goose-cooking residue

Salt, pepper, and
épices fines
or allspice to taste

An attractive jar or pot

Melted goose fat

Pound the cracklings in a mortar or put through a meat grinder, then warm briefly in a frying pan. Season to taste and pack tightly into jar or pot. Chill, and when cold, pour on a ¼-inch layer of melted goose fat. Cover and refrigerate. Will keep for a month or so.

Cou d’Oie Farci

[Goose-Neck Sausage]

If you have a farm goose, you can ask that the whole neck from head to backbone be saved for you intact and as is. Pluck and singe skin thoroughly, then peel it off the neck in one piece, turning skin inside out as you go. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, turn it skin side out, and it is ready to be a sausage casing. Use the
truffled pork, veal, and liver formula
, substituting goose liver and heart for chicken liver. Tie or sew the two ends, and poach the sausage in fat along with the goose.

PÂTÉS AND TERRINES

The French are famous for the splendor of their
pâtés
and
terrines,
those glorious looking, intoxicating smelling, rich, and unforgettable mixtures of pork, veal, chicken, duck, truffles, liver,
foie gras,
wines, and spices that are packed into long earthen dishes in the
charcuterie,
or in great round bowls, or are formed in cunningly decorated brown crusts. No other cuisine has developed the art quite like the French, and no other formulas are quite as delicious and subtle. However, if you have done some of the recipes in Volume I beginning on page 564, you will know how easy it is to make a
terrine:
it is only a matter of grinding up meat, seasoning it, slicing or dicing a garniture, and packing everything into a fat-lined dish before setting it in the oven. You know also that your own is almost invariably better than anything you can buy because you are using the best ingredients rather than scraps, and that most
pâtés
and
terrines
are expensive to buy and just as expensive to make. They come in the category of necessary luxuries.

An excellent pork-liver
pâté
starts off this new series in a fairly economical manner. This is followed by a
pâté de campagne,
then a
pâté
baked in bread dough, and an unusual porkless
terrine.
The section closes with fully illustrated directions on how to form and bake
pâtés en croûte.

A NOTE ON LIAISONS AND BINDERS

Almost all
pâté
mixtures have something in addition to meat to bind them together, preventing the meat from crumbling when the
pâté
is sliced. Eggs are usually present, sometimes bread crumbs, and rice can also serve. The following
panade
is an alternative to the bread-crumb type of
panade
used for the
boudin
sausages
.

Panade au Riz

For about 1 cup

⅓ cup plain raw white rice

1 cup or more of meat stock or bouillon

3 Tb butter

A heavy-bottomed 6-cup saucepan (no-stick recommended)

Simmer the rice in the liquid and butter for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is very tender. Add a little more bouillon if necessary, to keep rice from sticking, but liquid should be entirely absorbed when rice is done.

To use the panade

Purée in an electric blender, food mill, or meat grinder along with any liquids or egg you are using. (Your recipe will direct you.) Any leftover
panade
may be frozen.

A NOTE ON PORK FAT, BAKING DISHES, AND OTHER MATTERS

Full notes on what to bake a
pâté
in, and so forth, are discussed in Volume I, pages 564–5, and in the Master Recipe for
terrine de porc, veau, et jambon,
also in Volume I, starting on page 566. Our only additional comment here is on pork fat. Except in the case of the porkless
pâté,
which uses suet or chicken fat, all of the following recipes call for fresh pork as part of the meat mixture as well as a liner for the baking dish. We realize how difficult it is to find fresh pork fatback
(lard gras).
For the fat in the meat mixture itself, you can use fat-and-lean pork from the fresh shoulder butt, or fat from the outside of a loin roast; outside fresh ham- and shoulder-fat are less satisfactory because softer, but perfectly possible. Although you can line the mold with blanched salt pork or bacon, fresh pork fat is very much better both in taste and appearance. Lacking fresh fatback, you can pound strips of fresh outside loin fat between 2 sheets of waxed paper, to reduce them to ⅛ inch thickness and to weld them together.

THREE LIVER PÂTÉS
Pâté de Foie—Pâté de Campagne

Down on the farm, you naturally use every bit of the hog for something, and some of the very best
pâtés
contain pork liver, either as the main ingredient or combined with other meat. These have far more character than the chicken-liver
pâtés
so popular in this country, and your own homemade mixture is always surprisingly better than anything you seem to be able to buy, even in the best French
charcuterie.

LIVER NOTE

You may substitute beef liver for pork liver; we have not found any significant difference in effect. Calf’s liver is lovely but insanely expensive for this type of dish.

  
TERRINE DE FOIE DE PORC

[Pork-liver
Pâté
]

To translate a
terrine de foie de porc
into familiar language, it is like the very best liverwurst; you could easily mistake it for
pâté de foie gras.
Simple to make, it consists only of liver, pork fat, flavorings, plus an egg and either rice or bread crumbs to bind everything together. Of all the mixtures, this necessarily contains the most fat; if you used any less you would not achieve perfection. Serve slices of
pâté
and French bread or toast as a first course; it is also delicious as a spread for sandwiches or cocktail appetizers.