One of the greatest pleasures on a recent visit to Lille was to discover a new food shop, Le Barbier de Lille, combining traiteur and butcher, with a restaurant upstairs, on the very attractive rue de la Monnaie.
In fact, the terrines we enjoyed in the restaurant were so good we returned the next day to buy several kinds to take home, although I usually make my own.
Terrines are useful for entertaining, as they can be prepared well in advance. With the French national holiday a few days away to provide inspiration, I have included my favourite ones, a vegetable terrine, two fish ones and three of meat.
Larousse Gastronomique has two lengthy entries under the headings of pâtés and terrines. Madame Saint-Ange is much more sensible. She deals with both in the same chapter, which she begins with the following: “La composition des uns et des autres est identique. La croute constitue la seule différence.”
Thus, according to Mme Saint-Ange, terrines are simply pâtés without the crust. However, pâtés en croute are much less frequently made than they used to be in Mme Saint-Ange’s day, and the new edition of Larousse has it about right when it says the two terms are used interchangeably.
My own way of distinguishing between pâtés and terrines is that pâtés are soft and smooth, paste-like, in fact, and terrines have texture in the form of coarsely minced meat, diced fowl, flaked fish, slices of vegetables, nuggets of salmon fillets, what you will.
I put an asparagus terrine on the menu once when I cooked with Herbert Berger in the Café Royal Grill Room. Satisfied with all my recipes, he rather shook his head over this one.
Set only with a royale or light custard, it was going to be a very fragile terrine when it came to turning out and slicing it. Instead, we made a pressed vegetable terrine, and stiffened it with a little gelatin dissolved in vegetable stock. I was glad to have that tip and now use the same method for all my vegetable terrines.
Extra gelatin is not required in all terrines. Some food is sticky enough to produce its own gelatin so that it will set in its cooking juices.
Oxtail, for example, for a meat terrine, and skate for a fish terrine are very easy to work with and produce good results, as in the two recipes I have given here.
Fat is the binding or firming agent in many terrines and pâtés. Fat pork is used with game to set it as it cools, since game does not contain enough fat of its own.
Chicken liver pâté is often set with butter. Butter is also the binding agent for making simple smoked fish pâtés or pastes.
Freshly cooked salmon can be combined with smoked salmon trimmings, spices and seasoning, a little sherry or Madeira and softened unsalted butter, and then packed into pots or ramekins.
The electric carving knife, I have discovered, is of the greatest help in slicing terrines, to get a smooth, uncrumbling slice.