Pate De Campagne: A Front Line Look at French Butchery

The butcher did not speak English and I did not speak French until the beginning of my first pate experience did not seem very lucky. He has agreed to train me on the delicate matters of French criminals in favor of one of his best clients: an old friend whom I visited after not seeing him for seventeen years. I mentioned that I was interested in the French massacre and he arranged for this experience for me.

Nikki, the butcher, placed a hotel pan in front of me filled with pork neck, pork belly pieces and livers. The initial feelings of discomfort on both sides evaporated as I dug my hand into the pile of meat and began to grind it in the first step of making pate. I led two pounds of hearts and two pounds of neck and two pounds of stomach. I also add garlic, sauté onions until they are golden brown, red onion, parsley and chives.

Nikki then added salt, cured salt, pepper and mustard and then poured some cold water and 6 eggs into the mixer: one per kilo, he said. Once the ingredients are burnt, I grind the ingredients into the mixer. After a few minutes in the mixer the ingredients started to look like pate. With a baking spatula I scrape the mixer bowl, making sure that no remains are left on the sides of the bowl.

I then placed the pork belly (back fat) on the bottom of the terrine casserole dish and piled the pate on the sides of the dish. Nikki took the fat out, asked me if I knew (gestures and broken English), and when I nodded, kept putting it on the ground. Fat cauliflower is a cow's intestine, similar to a thick spider web in appearance. I penetrated the air bubbles and then we put the vapor on the hotel pan and then put it in the oven at 200 degrees for 2 hours.

After some time, we removed the rapids from the oven, and then, leaving them in the hotel pan, added water to the hotel pan to keep the area within an inch of water. We then put the hotel pan back in the oven at 145 degrees and slowly cook until they reach 70 degrees Celsius in the middle. We made several other types of pate, but this one stood out in my head as my first experience with the French assassination.

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