Pâté Pantin, édition speciale Volaille.

Freeform poultry pâté in a savory shortcrust pastry.

Much better improvement on the previous pâté. The forcemeat contained duck breast trimmings, chicken leg, chicken and pork liver, chicken gizzards, chicken hearts, fatback, celery and carrot. The duck, chicken thighs, liver and heart were ground with garlic and rosemary and half was puréed. The drumsticks were poached along with the gizzard. The cooked drumstick meat, gizzard, diced fatback, mortar crushed peppercorns as well as diced celery and carrot from the poaching aromatics were folded into the forcemeat. The forcemeat had a pleasant pinkish color and tighter texture than the previous effort. It was far leaner and shrunk far less, consequently leeching less liquid, though it remained moist.


The dough was significantly better as well. Much sturdier though initially overwork in an effort to save it after erroneously using only half of the required water. The dough was rolled thicker and the seams were along the edge of the forcemeat rather than underneath as in the previous. The leaner forcemeat also helped maintain the integrity of the crust and it did not have to absorb/retain any cooking liquid.

Aesthetically the decorative feathers were successful though fluted chimneys would have been more classical. Cross hatches were made after 4 coats of egg-wash with the point of a knife. Not entirely necessary, more of a impulse and effort to keep the ends from being boringly bare.

Ultimately the pâté was well within the spectrum of success. The cooked forcemeat had good texture, taste and appearance as did the pastry. However, a few issues need to be resolved.

Shortcomings and accountability:

Forcemeat: The puréed portion of the forcemeat could have been smoother. It was ground once through the small die and then pulverized in the food processor. A smoother product could have been attained by either grinding the meat twice or more, or putting it in a blender (which I do not currently own) and then passing through a sieve. I was hesitant to pass the meat through a sieve as it is difficult to clean out the sinew and such afterwards.

Shortcrust: The amount of water called for in the recipe formulated from classical French resources looked excessive and roughly half was carelessly omitted since it looked too wet. As a result the dough was dry and brittle and broke apart when folded or stretched. In an effort to salvage the dough, more water was incorporated and naturally it became overworked and elastic making it difficult to work with.

Aspic: Not strong enough, melted at room temperature, again. It later came to my attention that gelatin sheets cancel out any natural gelatin in a consommé or stock and that a proper aspic should be made with 2% gelatin by weight.

Pâté Pantin Richelieu,
édition speciale prunes et pistaches.

Freeform Pâté in a savory crust,
special prune and pistachio edition.

Made for the celebration of a good friend’s enthusiastic restaurant review, his first in the capacity of Chef. In keeping with the star flavored theme and obsession with restaurant reviews*, the chimneys are star shaped and the prune and pistachio inlay was star shaped, though the shape compressed during cooking.

Recipe technique and theory (albeit not up to snuff but acceptable for an inaugural attempt) inspired by Larousse Gastronomique and Escoffier formulations for forcemeats and farce à gratin. Forcemeat was comprised of 20% farce à gratin, 60% ground meat and 20% cooked garnish (diced ham, beef tongue and fatback).

The prune and pistachio inlay (generally cooked chicken or duck liver -the Richelieu characteristic) was made by filling a star shaped tube with ground prunes and pistachios, freezing it, unmolding it and placing it in the middle of the forcemeat. The star shaped tube was fabricated by scoring an 11cm long piece of flexible plastic alternatively on the other side every 1 cm and then bending the plastic so that it folds like an accordion. The ends are brought together and overlapped producing a tube and when compressed a bit it makes a star.


Overall the pâté was a marginal success and failures are a vital bittersweet step in understanding what went right, what went wrong and why. A culinary mentor reminded me that anything worth fucking up is worth fucking up twice and urged me to consider how many things he had fucked up in a 35 year career. Successfully following a recipe does little more than prove solid reading skills and attention whereas understanding the theory comes from the practice and experience in experimenting the limits of fat, water, salt, temperature and time.

Initial, humble shortcomings:
1. Forcemeat: The meat was marinated in plum wine with olive oil, rosemary, carrot, onion, bay leaf, rosemary and a splash of cider vinegar. The vinegar should have been omitted as its purpose it better suited for marinated large joints or meats to be roasted and it may have cooked some of the meat and lead to oxidation. The cooked texture had a dry and crumbly appearance. It was not as tight and smooth as it should have been and had a brown-to-pink color gradient rather than pink throughout.

This may have been a result of the farce à gratin which was made by sautéing pork belly, the liver, red onion, deglazing and puréeing with 40% of the ground meat. If anything, the liver should have been cured with #1 to maintain a pleasant pink color, but ideally the farce à gratin should have been omitted or kept raw. When cooking, the forcemeat released a frightening amount of “juice”. The forcemeat may have been to fatty.

On the plus side, the flavor of the forcemeat was decent and the tongue garnish & ham was properly cooked (each inject with and cured in brine with curing salt for 4 days and simmer until tender in plainly salted water with a few vegetable aromatics until tender)

2. Pastry:
The short-crust pâte à foncer was 60% fat (½ butter, ½ lard) and after making the dough a few times the water amount should have been increased, though initially the dough looked too wet and I was hesitant to add the entire amount of water. The flavor was good and seasoned with salt (just a bit too much) and ground black pepper. The pastry was wrapped around the forcemeat and overlapped under the entirely. The overlap should have extended up the sides or the pasty should have been thicker. As the pâté cooked it compressed and its weight caused the pastry to tear and lose all the juices. The pastry should have held all the meat in place. Furthermore, a disastrous crack formed between the chimneys, ruining the visual aesthetics and handywork.

3. Aspic:
The aspic was far to thin (too little gelatin) and began to melt at room temperature. It was properly seasoned but could have used some Madeira or Port wine.

Conclusion:
The forcemeat should have contained all raw proteins outside of the garnish and been leaner. Vinegar should have been omitted from the marinade as it was likely to cause unsavory color change. The pâté itself should have been smaller and less forcemeat would have caused less structural issues. The pastry should have been thicker, especially in areas where liquid was likely to collect. The star should have been made from a cooked protein that wouldn’t have compressed. Apologies to Logan for using him, his celebration and guests as guinea pigs, though I ambitiously hadn’t anticipated a less than perfect specimen.

*The 0-4 star rating scale is stupid. If wines and school children are graded on a scale of 1-100, so should restaurants since the ½ star gradient does little to differentiate one restaurant from another or merit from more merit.

Suprême en Pâte

Chicken Airliner in Savory Pastry

A piecemeal representation of the venerable Coq en Pâte, a whole rooster baked in a savory pastry crust generally decorated and molded so as to suggest a poultry form. In this case a Frenched and brined chicken airliner. Baked in a butter and lard based pâte à foncer (50% short crust). Seam is on the bottom and the chimney makes room for the bone while allowing steam to escape. Decorative feather emotes the bird within. 4 coats egg wash. Cavity is then filled with aspic made from reduced consommé. Must be baked at a very high temperature to ensure that the pastry has a chance to cook before the chicken breast overcooks and shrinks down to nothing. A layer of toasted coarse breadcrumbs may absorb any of the excessive juice the chicken might release.