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VEAL LIVER PATE (to be eaten cold)
Take one pound of calf's liver and ten ounces of fat bacon. Mince these first separately, and afterwards together, and season the mixture with pepper, salt, and pounded mace. Add two table-spoonfuls of chopped parsley, two ounces of finely-minced lean ham, and a moderate-sized onion that has been sliced and browned in fat. Mix these ingredients thoroughly, and stir into them first the beaten yolks, and afterwards the well-whisked whites of two eggs. Line a mould with thin slices of fat bacon, put in the mince, place slices of bacon on the top, and bake the pate very gradually in a gentle oven. When it is done enough it can be easily pierced quite through with a skewer. Let it get cold, turn it upon a dish, and garnish with parsley. Carve it in slices.
A plain baked liver terrine of the sort Edwardian kitchens kept in the cold larder. The method is sound; only the oven language and the doneness test need translating.
- The hinge: low heat, and stop early"very gradually in a gentle oven" points to a slow heat, usually reckoned somewhere in the 250-325F range, so around 300F is a reasonable modern reading. Liver forced at a higher heat turns granular and weeps fat, and the loaf goes grey and crumbly instead of slicing cleanly.
- Test with a thermometer, not a skewerThe skewer test tells you the mixture has set, not that it is safe. Cook to 160F at the centre; with roughly 1 3/4 lb of mixture expect upwards of an hour in a low oven, but go by the thermometer rather than the clock.
- A water bath is impliedA water bath -- the recipe does not call for one, but standing the mould in a roasting tin of hot water reaching halfway up the sides is one way to keep the heat gentle and even.
- Fat baconThis means fat back or very fatty streaky bacon, cut thin, not modern lean back rashers. Its job is to line the mould and baste the mince; lean bacon will leave the sides dry.
- Pounded maceBlade mace crushed in a mortar. Ground mace from a jar is the direct substitute, about a quarter teaspoon for this quantity; nutmeg is close but sweeter and heavier.
- Mincing"Mince separately, then together" gives an even distribution of fat through the liver. A food processor does it in short pulses, but stop while the texture is still coarse or the pate sets rubbery.
- The whisked whitesWhisking the whites separately and adding them last lightens what would otherwise be a dense loaf. The recipe says to stir them in, so work gently and bake soon after mixing.
- Mould and yieldThe mixture comes to something over 1 3/4 lb, so allow a mould of at least 2 lb loaf-tin capacity; it gives eight to ten slices as a first course or cold-table dish.
- CoolingCool it in the mould, then weight it lightly with a board and a tin overnight in the refrigerator before turning out. It will slice far more cleanly, and it keeps three or four days covered.
This belongs with the plain "pate" and forcemeat preparations in which the word still meant a seasoned meat paste baked in a lined mould rather than the smooth, butter-enriched spread the term suggests now; such baked meat pastes are often said to have reached English domestic cookery from French charcuterie in the nineteenth century, though preparations of the kind are a good deal older. Calf's liver was the expensive liver of the butcher's counter, and pairing it with fat bacon is standard terrine practice: the liver supplies flavour and the pork supplies the fat that keeps it sliceable when cold. Dishes explicitly labelled "to be eaten cold" earned their place in a period household because they could be made a day ahead, kept in the larder, and set out for supper, luncheon or the sideboard without further work from the cook.