General Composition

Meat and poultry terrines are all made in pretty much the same way: The tender pieces of meat are left whole or cut into relatively large pieces to lend variety to the texture and are usually marinated (very often in Cognac, which lends a false, slightly rotten, gamey taste and renders the terrine indigestible—a good eau de vie is a valuable flavoring agent but should be incorporated only just before cooking); tougher flesh containing tendons or nervous tissue is chopped and usually combined with a certain amount of blandly flavored meat—veal or pork or both—to form the base of the forcemeat; liver lends smoothness to the texture and support to the egg binding; chopped or cubed pork fat (often about three times as much as the proportions given in any of the following recipes) is incorporated to nourish the forcemeat and prevent its drying out; breadcrumbs are too often not added but, if measured discreetly—about one ounce of crumbs per pound of flesh—so that its presence is imperceptible, it will always lend a gratifying lightness to the body of the terrine; in addition to salt, spices, and herbs, garlic, onion, pistachios, truffles, and the currently fashionable green peppercorns may lend aromatic support. The tender, unripened peppercorns are available tinned, but they are much more interesting in their highly perfumed fresh state; in Paris, M. Paul Corcellet, whose exotic foods shop at 46 rue des Petits-Champs is probably the most fantastic of its kind in the world, flies them in fresh from Madagascar, vacuum packs them in plastic envelopes, and deep freezes them. If this has not yet occurred to an American packager, it will soon.