Pâté en terrine is a meat, game, or fish preparation out into a dish (terrine) lined with bacon, cooked in the oven, and always served cold. The correct French abbriviation of this is tirrine but in common usage the French also call it pâté. The English have adopted both names.
Pâté en croûte is a rich meat, game or fish mixture cooked in a pastry crust and served hot or cold
Pâté was known to the Romans, who use to make it chiefly with pork but also used all types of marinated spiced ingredients (especially bird's tongues). In the Middle Ages, there were numerous recipes for pâtisses (meats cooked in pastry) made with pork, poultry, eel, burbot, carp, sheep's tongues, etc. Throughout the centuries, pâtés have been dedicated to famous people, some examples are pâtés à la mazarine (in honour of Cardinal Mazarin), pâtés à la cardinal and pâtés à la reine. In his Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, Alexandre Dumas names a dozen, with numerous variants. Today there are many varieties of pâtés inspired by French regional cookery, notably pâté de Chartres (made with partridge), pâté d'Amiens (duck), pâté de Pithiviers (larks), pâté de Pézenaz (mutton, spices and sugar), pâté de Ruffec (foie gras with truffles). Corsican blickbird pâté, Dieppe sole pâté, pâté lorrain ans pâté bourbonnais.
Most pâtés sold in delicatessens are actually terrines, based on pork meat or offal (in pieces or minced) bound with eggs, milk, jelly, etc. Among the best French pâtés are pâté de campagne, particularly that from Brittany (pure pork pâté containing offal, rind, onions, herbs and spices); also pâté de volaille and pâté de gibier (chicken and game pâtés, containing 15% of the animal); pâté de foie (containing 15% pork liver and 45% fat); and pâté de tête (containing boned cooked pig's head mixed with cooked salted meat with the rind still on).
The pastry most often used for pâté en croûte is pâte à pâté, which is an ordinary lining pastry made with lard, but is a fine pastry made with butter is also used, as well as puff pastry and unsweetened brioche dough. Pâte à pâté must be made well in advance, as it is easier to work after a good rest and does not brown so quickly when cooking. The pastry lid, which is sealed at the edges so that the filling can not escape, is golden and not often decorated. The centre is pierced with a "chimney" - a small hole (often two in large pâtés) is made in the pastry and sometimes a small nozzle or cone is inserted - to enable the cooking steam to escape and prevent the pâté from spliting.
The pâté mould, which has deep sides and hinges or clips, may be round, oval, or rectangular. Dariole moulds are sometimes used for very small pâtés.
The fillings are based on pork, pork and veal, ham, chicken, fish, game and sometimes vegetables. All the ingredients are generally minced (ground) quite finely but some of them may be cut into matchsticks, small strips, dice, etc. The ingredients may be marinated seperately. They are mixed with the filling or alternated with layers of filling. The pâté is sometimes lined with bacon barding before the filling is added.
In general, baking starts in a hot oven (200 to 210°C, 400 to 420°F), which is then turned down to about 150°C (300°F). The total cooking time is relatively long: 35 to 40 minutes per kg (15 to 20 minuters per lbs.). Some hot pâtés have a little sauce, gravy, or juiced poured into them through the chimney before serving; for others, the sauce is served separately in a sauceboat. For pâtés that are served cold, aspic flavoured with Madeira, port, etc., can be poured through the chimney when cold to fill up the spaces made during cooking (the aspic should be ready to set). The pâté is not turned out of the mould until the aspic has set and it is kept cool until served. Hot or cold pâtés are cut into thick slices and served as an entrée. Small individual pâtés are arranged on plates, sometimes with aspic croutons.
