After watching the video of Chef John making this (a million times) I decided to give it a try. Given that I had devoured the pistachio's and dried cherries during a snack binge the previous night my substitution of pecans and dried cranberries had to suffice. Even though pistachios look much better, the pecans worked. Assembling the ingredients could well have been the 13th labor of Hercules (and cleaning the kitchen, pots, pans and tools the 14th). I felt that screaming for some French serf's to help with the prep-work would have worked but my family reminded me to consider how well that worked out for Louis XVI. I tried to stick with the recipe as written, down to the last cardboard cutout for pressing the finished product. It has great texture and flavor but next time I'll go with the caul fat mentioned in the video.
We have used other recipes for pate de campagne but we like this one the best! Others we have tried were lacking in spices they just needed something extra. This one has a good spice mix and we like the addition of the dried cherries and the pistachios. We used our meat grinding attachment for the first time and felt the flavor of the meats was better as we knew exactly what went into it instead of buying ground meats to use which can be made from several different cuts of meat. I used boneless country rib meat for the pork and chicken thigh meat instead of duck which is not easy to find here. I also used twice as much chicken liver as the recipe calls for as you want to be able to taste it over the spices. About the spices the recipe lists a total of 4 tablespoons of spices yet after they are mixed and set aside it only ever tells you to add 3/4 of a teaspoon of the mix! We knew that this was not near enough spices from previous attempts so added half of the mix (2 tablespoons) instead. This was better than other pates we had made as to spices but it still needed more. Next time I make this I will add the entire 4 tablespoons of the spice mix to the meat. We have been enjoying this pate with grainy mustard ground horseradish and cornichons and froze about 2/3 of it in smaller packages to use over the next few months. Very good recipe!
Made it exactly to the recipe. It was amazing
This is an incredible recipe. Relatively easy to prepare and bake. The finished pate has an excellent texture and flavor profile. I will make this again and again. I have gotten rave reviews. This pate goes well with Brie’s, gruyere and multiple cheeses, cornichons, olives and fruit. It also freezes well. Thank you Chef John!
I made this for a wine dinner and it was very good indeed. A bit laborious, but so worth it.
I don't have a special container, etc. So I used 2 loaf pans. The first was the pan in which I cooked the pate. The second (which stacks inside the first) was for the weights. I was able to get cans of tomatoes in to weight it down.
Also, when removing the foil, the pate will have some liquid, rendered fat. Make sure that you have a bowl or cup ready to catch those drippings.
Served with an arugula and pink endive salad, spicy cranberry brown mustard and a pecan vinaigrette. The wine pairing was a 2016 Grand Cru Chablis.
Altogether not bad for a first attempt. The assembled company loved it.
This is well worth the effort I found it a little salty and would cut back on the salt next time. I used ground pork ground turkey chopped beef liver( the stores were out of chicken liver) spicey sausage meet and 0.5 centimetre square slices of cooked ham. When placing the meat mix in the pan I placed 1/3 then a layer of the ham slices another 1/3 rd of the meat another layer of ham strips and then the rest of the meat. Texture was marvellous and great tasting. Only problem was the speed with which it disappeared.
I went Old School with this grinder/chopper.
Excellent recipe. I modified it a little and used duck breast and a lot more of it. I also used pancetta as the liner instead of bacon.
the cloves punch through ruthlessly, also seems like too much salt. Will make it again definitely.
