Terrine de canard : baking & pressing

Julia Child used to say that you should never apologize for your cooking when you are serving dinner to guests, even if the dishes didn't end up resembling what you had intended. I might say the same thing about blogs: never apologize. At the same time, I'll say that I'm sorry that I can't finish the terrine series today.

This is the terrine I cooked the duck pâté in. I've had it for so long —
25 or 30 years — that I don't remember where I got it.

Why? Because I'm not yet ready to slice the terrine de canard up for serving. That won't happen for another few hours. It will be part of our afternoon Thanksgiving Dinner later today, which will be a very meaty one: with the terrine as a first course, we'll move on to a boned gigot d'agneau that we bought from the butcher-who-delivers. More about all that tomorrow too.

The last step before baking is to pour over the top of the meat mixture
the half-cup of the wine in which the dried mushrooms soaked.

Where's our Thanksgiving turkey? What will we tell our American friends who are coming for dinner? Well, as I've said, I put ground turkey into the terrine mixture. The terrine, by the way, cooks in a water bath, called a bain-marie in French, in a medium oven for just over two hours. I checked mine at that point with an instant-read thermometer and it was up to 75ºC (nearly 170ºF) in the center.

The brick we used to press the pâté fit our terrine just about perfectly. If you don't
have a brick, you can use two heavy cans of beans or tomatoes or whatever.

When the terrine comes out of the oven and has cooled down slightly, it needs to be pressed. In other words, you cover it and put a heavy weight on top of it. We cut two pieces of cardboard into oval shapes to match the size of the baking dish and put them inside a plastic bag. That got laid on top of the cooked meat mixture as a lid, and on top of it we put a brick that was also inside a plastic bag.

Then we put the cooked terrine into the refrigerator to be pressed down by the weight of the brick for 24 hours. And it stays in the fridge for another 48 hours after that, before you're ready to slice and serve it.

So there you have it — except for the pictures of the finished product that I plan to take later this morning. Here is the recipe in English:

Terrine de canard forestière

2 boneless duck breast filets (about one pound in all)
2 duck livers (or 3 chicken or rabbit livers)
10 oz. ground turkey (or veal)
10 oz. lean ground pork
1 tsp. corn or potato starch
3 whole eggs
1 tsp. allspice
salt and pepper
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 oz. shelled pistachios
1 oz. dried boletus and/or shiitake mushrooms
½ cup white wine
4 thin slices fatback or blanched bacon
2 peeled shallots (or small onions)
3 bay leaves

Day 1: Take the skin off the duck breast filets and save them in the refrigerator. Cut one of the breast filets into small cubes and cut the other one into strips between ¼ and ½ inches wide. Season the meat and put it in the refrigerator.

Put the dried mushrooms to soak in the white wine. De-vein the livers and chop them (or put them through the meat grinder).

Put the ground turkey and the ground pork into a big bowl. Add the livers, allspice, salt, pepper, starch, eggs, and thyme. Add the cubed duck liver and the shelled pistachios. Place the strips of duck breast meat over the top. Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours (overnight).

Day 2: Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Lift the rehydrated mushrooms out of the white wine and chop them finely. Strain the wine through a fine sieve or a paper coffee filter to remove any sand or grit.

Line the bottom and sides of a 2 qt. (2 liter) baking dish with the duck skin and/or thin strips of fatback/bacon. Take the duck breast strips off the top of the mixture and reserve them. Then put  half of the ground meat mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.

Arrange the strips of duck breast on top of the first layer of ground meat mixture. Top them with the rest of the ground meat mixture.

On the top of the meat mixture as decoration and for flavor, place two or three shallots (or onions) cut into slices and two or three bay leaves. Strain the half cup of mushroom soaking wine over the top of the meat mixture. Put the lid on the baking dish or cover it with foil and bake it in a water bath in the oven for two hours and fifteen minutes.

Remove the terrine from the oven and let it cool down slightly. Take the lid off the dish, cover it with a piece of thick cardboard (or wood) that is cut to fit inside the dish and put inside a waterproof plastic bag. Weight that cover down with a brick or a couple of big, heavy cans of vegetables. When the terrine has completely cooled, put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours with the weight still on it.

Day 3: Take the weight off the terrine, put the lid back on the dish, and leave it in the refrigerator for 48 hours longer before you slice and serve it so that all the flavors can develop and blend together.

Serve slices of  the terrine, cold, with an onion chutney and/or pickled gherkins, toasted bread, and a demi-sec or sweet white wine (Vouvray, Monbazillac, Sauternes) or other wine of your choice.

This is Part 4 of the Terrine de canard series. Here are links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 5.