1. It serves 20, so it would be great to take to a party. If you serve it to a small group, you can freeze what you don't use or you can give your guests some to take home. I did not try to scale it down for our dinner because I was afraid I might miscalculate.
2. It can be made up to 4 days in advance. I would suggest making it at least a day in advance.
3. It involves a fair amount of work, but is fairly easy to follow.
4. The volume of ingredients is probably about 30% larger than the baking dish called for. However, you can use the leftovers to make burger patties.
5. There is A LOT of PORK involved - ground pork, bacon, and ham.
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The pâté is best served with a baguette, cornichons (small French pickles), and Dijon mustard.
I recommend reading the reviews on Epicurious before preparing.
Below is the original recipe, modified with my comments and edited to reflect my experience and preferences.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup of cognac (or something similar - I used Napoleon brandy.)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup minced onion
- 2 & 1/2 pounds ground pork
- 22 slices of bacon (8 -10 slices to be finely chopped and mixed with the pork, and 14 slices for lining the baking dish to wrap the meat mixture)
- 3 garlic cloves pressed
- 2 & 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 & 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons allspice
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup whipping cream
- one 6-oz ham steak, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick strips. (Some reviewers suggested omitting this ingredient. I kept it and liked it.)
- coarse sea salt (I omitted this ingredient.)
- 1/4 cup sliced/chopped pistachios (This was not in the original recipe. Some reviewers suggested adding these. I did and thought they were a nice addition.)
Accompaniments
- cornichons
- Dijon mustard
- baguette
Directions
1. Set oven rack to lowest position in oven, and preheat to 350°F.
2. Boil cognac until reduced to 1/2 cup - about 1 & 1/2 minutes. Let cool.
3. Melt butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until soft and translucent, but not brown.
4. Combine ground pork and chopped bacon in large bowl. Using fork or fingertips, mix together until well blended.
5. Add sautéed onion, garlic, 2 & 1/2 teaspoons salt, thyme, allspice, and pepper to bowl with pork mixture, and stir until well blended. Add pistachios, eggs, cream, and reduced cognac, and stir until well blended.
6. Line a 9x5x3 metal loaf pan with the bacon slices, arranging 8 slices across the width of the pan and 3 slices on each short side of the pan and overlapping the pan on all sides. (You want to arrange the bacon slices in a way that allows you to cover the top with the bacon once you have put the meat mixture into the pan. In other words, you should be able to wrap the entire meat mixture with the bacon slices. I did not have a metal pan, so I used a glass baking dish with the same dimensions. Although items in metal normally cook faster than in glass, I did not change the baking temperature or time, and everything worked fine.)
7. Once you have lined the bottom and sides of the baking dish with the bacon slices, use your hands to lightly press half of the meat mixture (about 3&1/4 cups) into the pan. Arrange the ham strips in a single layer over this half of the meat mixture. Then add the remainder of the meat mixture over the ham.
8. Once the meat mixture fills the pan, fold the bacon slices over the top, covering the pâté. Then cover the pan tightly with foil.
9. Place the pan in a 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan and transfer to the oven. Pour boiling water into this larger baking pan to come halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. (I did not have that size metal baking pan, so I used a ceramic baking dish that was about an inch larger in all dimensions. I also found it easier to pour the boiling water into the pan before I put it in the oven.)
10. Bake the pâté until a thermometer inserted through the foil into the center registers 155°F - about 2 hours 15 minutes.
11. Remove the loaf pan from the larger baking pan and transfer it to a rimmed baking sheet. (The reason for having a rimmed baking sheet is that a fair amount of liquid fat will seep out of the loaf pan during the next step. The rim will keep this liquid fat on the baking sheet.)
12. Place a heavy skillet or 2 - 3 heavy cans atop the pâté to weigh it down. (That will compact the pâté and force out the excess fat.) The approach I took was to cut a piece of heavy cardboard to a size slightly smaller than the top of the loaf pan. I then put two heavy tomato cans atop the cardboard.) Put this weighted-down loaf pan and baking sheet in the refrigerator and chill overnight.
13. When preparing to serve, place the loaf pan in a larger pan with hot water for about 3 minutes to loosen the pâté from the sides and bottom of the baking pan. (It took about 5 minutes in my case. I also had to use a spatula to separate the pâté from the sides of the baking dish. Do not unwrap the bacon. This remains part of the pâté.)
14. Invert the pâté onto a platter; discard the fat from the platter and wipe clean. (I did this step differently. I inverted the pâté onto a cutting board. Then I wiped the excess fat from the cutting board and the outsides of the pâté. Then I slice the pâté per directions in the next step.)
15. Cut the pâté crosswise into 1/2-inch slices and place on serving platter. Serve with baguette slices, cornichons, and Dijon mustard.
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