Meat and Poultry Terrines and Pâtés

The only rational translation of pâté into English is “pie”: A pâté de foie gras is not liver paste. It is a whole, fat goose liver enclosed in pastry. A terrine de foie gras is whole liver prepared in a terrine without pastry. In serious restaurants, pâté on a menu still means “enclosed in pastry.” Outside of that rarefied atmosphere, the confusion is so total—pâté can mean meatloaf, liver paste, or dog-food, and pâté en croûte means pâté—that it is not worthwhile even to attempt to respect the terminology.