I’ve never made a terrine ever! But I wanted to try. I found this old Time Life cookbook “Terrines, Pates & Gelatines”, it is the BEST! I decided to make a Hare, and Pork liver terrines. I ordered a hare, and pork liver online. I got my Pork liver from Heritage Foods, and the Hare from Dartagnan. The hare I boned and reserved all of the innards. Heart, kidneys liver…eveything. There was quite a lot of blood that I reserved too. I used all of this in the terrine, which gave it an especially rich, and gamey flavor. I didn’t grind any of the meats for the Hare terrine as I wanted it to have a rustic consistency, I chopped all of ingredients.

Hare Terrine

(Makes about 4 pounds)

4-5 lb. Hare, boned and finely chopped
1 lb. boneless lean veal, finely chopped
1 lb. boneless pork, finely chopped
3 scallions, chopped
1 bay leaf, crumbled
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
salt & pepper (to taste)
3/4 lb. fresh pork fatback, sliced into bards
3 tbsp. eau de vie (or other brandy)

Mix all ingredients except fatback bards and the brandy. Fry a little of the and taste it for seasoning.

Line a 2 1/4 quart terrine with fatback bards.

Put in the meat mixture and cover it with the remaining bards.

You can really get into layering the terrine with pistaschio nuts, or carrot, parsley, parsnips…Slices of meat etc. Okaaaaaay, the first batch of terrines I made, I followed the recipe, and put them in the oven per the recipe at 325 degrees for 4-5 hours, or until it reaches an internal temp of 160. Here’s the deal, I left my terrines in for 4 hours and they were waaaaaay overcooked.

Yeah…I know. But incredibly, once I removed the terrine from the dish and trimmed it, it wasn’t half bad!

It was too dry, but the Hare terrine didn’t need any eggs to hold it together. I used about 8 ozs of blood from the hare and the innards and it was all good. I served it at my daughters birthday party for the adults, and they loved it!

Luckily I ordered 2 Hare’s and did the whole thing over again. FYI my brother ate the whole batch of overcooked Hare terrine. Anyway, weight the terrine until it has cooled completely.

Pork Liver Terrine

(makes about 2 1/2 pounds)

1 lb. pork liver, trimmed and coarsely ground
1 lb. boneless pork with some fat, coarsely ground
salt & pepper (to taste)
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup of Cognac
3/4 sliced lean bacon

Combine the ground liver and pork in a bowl with the salt, pepper, and herbs. Add the eggs and cognac and mix thoroughly.

*Now, I left out the eggs (because in the original recipes, eggs were not needed as the natural gelatins from the meats held them together) which caused my terrine to kind of fall apart and not hold together as I wanted it. But it tasted fantastic! Also, I layed a split trotter on top (to let gelatin from them slowly melt into the terine)with orange peels, and spices for additonal flavor…


I should have maybe cooked this one a little longer and definitely put in the eggs…but, like I said, the end result was really good. Next, I’m making a veal liver and pork terrine, and I got an antique Pate mold so I’m gonna get real fancy!

You have trim the bcaon and fatback from the terrine before serving. I chopped and added the trimming to an omelet and it was crazy good!

I seasoned the duck legs with sea salt, fresh garlic, bay leaves, cracked black pepper, rosemary, and five spice powder. I put a lid on my container and let them marinade overnight.

The next day I took them out of the fridge and rinsed off the duck legs saving the bay leaves and crushed garlic…You must rinse the legs or they will be too salty after cooking. I learned this the hard way. I didn’t have enough duck fat to cook all of my legs so I called around the city and found some unrenedered duck fat at Giovanni Esposito & Sons on 9th Avenue. I love this place. A real old style NY butcher. One the few left in NYC. I explained my situation and it was decided that I needed 9 pounds of unrendered frozen duck fat to finish my 6 duck legs for the confit. I’ve never rendered duck fat, but I was up for the challenge.

I let the duck fat thaw in the fridge, and then cut it up into cubes and rendered it on my stove top.

This didn’t take nearly as long as rendering lard does…And look what I got.

This is my beautiful, strained, golden, duck fat ready to use! I put the duck legs, the reserved bay leaves, garlic and fat into my cast iron dutch oven and put them into a preheated oven at 200 degrees.

I let them slow cook until the legs were tender, yet not falling apart. You have to judge this yourself. This time it took about 4 hours to get them perfect. I then put them into plastic Tupperware containers as I thought this would be better to ship them in.

Done n done! Next was the goose rillette. so, here is my beautiful goose, fully defrosted and ready to go.

I cut the goose up and seasoned it with garlic, cracked pepper, bay leaves, and rosemary.

I reserved the goose legs and wings for some goose confit…I mean why not have a party. I slow everthing in duck fat until the goose meat was falling off the bone.

I pulled everything off the bone. Removed all of the sinew and things. I then roughly chopped the meat and then shredded it by hand. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put the meat into a food processor as this will make not rillette but rather a goose mouse or pudding…Eiewwwwwwww. I took a wooden spoon and tablespoon by tablespoon incorporated the strained goose fat into the meat until I got a nice creamy texture. All along I seasoned the meat until it tasted just right. You need to keep in mind that once chilled and aged the seasoning will change so it’s good to season on the heavy side.

I put about an inch of goose fat on top of my rillette. Let that chill and put about a quarter inch of home made lard on top of that to further seal it and there it is! I put everything into a box and sent it to myself. My box was waiting at my front door when I arrived back in LA. Thanksgiving is going to be gooooooooood this year!

After 7 days I removed the belly from the bag, dumped the brine and rinsed and dried the belly on a rack in the fridge overnight. Next day I loaded up my homemade oven smoker! It took me all day to find any smoking wood chips in Manhattan. As New York is a seasonal city, and labor Day was fast approaching everyone had put away the smoking chips for next year…I finally found a guy at Whole Foods who went in the back and grabbed a dusty box of hickory wood chips…they cost 35 bucks! Yeah, I know but what could I do? I was commited at that point and the prospect of going all the way across town to search in Home Depo was not at all appealing, so I paid for them and ran home. I picked up a collapsable meat rack for $9.95 from Sur La Table and I was good to go.

FYI, I read a recent post in a food blog online in which one person said that this whole concept of smoking meat in the oven was ridiculous, dangerous and could not be done! Another person asked the question: Why would anyone want to make bacon at home? To these non belivers I simply reply “Why do you live?”, but I digress. I tented the meat with heavy tin foil and put it in roasting pan and got the wood chips started by heating the whole thing up on the stove top burner. I turned on the AC and opened every window in my place (my carbon footprint is as big as a dinosaur). I heated everything up until it started smoking…Got very concerned and popped it in my pre heated oven. My oven was set at 200 degrees. I set the timer for 3 hours and left the apartment. While on stage sometime during the second act, I heard a fire engine off in the distance and wondered if it was headed for my place.

When I came home after my matinee, I opened the oven and pulled everything out…

The oven was off and the belly had cooled, and the skin looked like shoe leather but other than that, it seemed alright. I removed the rind and had me some oven smoked, homemade bacon! 

Now let me just testify for a minute…I’ve made bacon before, but never like this. It was absolutely PERFECT! The key is to test the meat at each stage. After I cured it, I cooked a small piece of the belly, but it was really salty, so I soaked it in my kitchen sink for 2 hours rinsed and tested it again. I did this twice until I got the saltiness down to where I liked it. The added maple syrup really sweetned the taste also…And finally I GOT BACON!!!!!!

*The internal temperature of the belly should reach 150 degrees before removing from the oven. also, my recipe calls for like 5 cups of wood chips, but upon inspection only about 1 1/2 cups really were charred. This was enough to give the meat a sweet and gentle smokey flavor. I kept the rest of my 35 dollar wood chips for next year…

I removed the ribs and Barbequed them in the oven…

I red cooked part of the belly in a broth of

Tamari

Roasted Sesame oil

Salt

Garlic

Cayenne pepper

Dark brown sugar

Molasses

Simmered until fork tender. Delicious! Finally I’m curing the belly in a cure of:

5 Tablespoons of Kosher salt

2 Tablespoons of Dark brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon of curing salt

Shoved everything into a zip lock bag, and stuck it in the fridge. Now we wait 7 days, and see what happens!

Marinade:

Garlic

Roasted Paprika

Cayenne Pepper

Black Pepper

Salt

Soy Sauce

Sesame Oil

Rosemary

I preheated the oven to 450 degrees and roasted the leg for 30 minutes, and then lowered the temperature to 350 and continued roasting it for another hour.

I sliced from the end thus the more well done slices you see. I deglazed the pan with a rich home made chicken stock and a little bit of dry white wine…OMG! That gravy was the BOMB! thickened it with butter and flour. Sauteed some baby brussel spouts and served it with a creamy, cheesy polenta…YUM!

I can’t wait to make sandwiches out of the leftovers and hash and stew! Next up my great Corned Beef challenge.

This is my leftover breakfast I had this morning. Left over beef shank ragu over some left over Spaghettini, w 2 fresh poached eggs, pepper flakes n grated artisan cheese on top. Yum!