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Pate of Foies Gras
These pasties, so highly esteemed by epicures, are made at Strasburg, and thence exported to various parts. They are prepared from the livers of geese, which have been tied down for three or four weeks to prevent them moving, and forcibly compelled to swallow, at intervals, a certain amount of fattening food. When they have become so fat that they would die in a short time, they are killed, and their livers, which have become very rich, fat, and pale during the process, are used for the above purpose. These pates are very expensive. A good imitation of them may be made without subjecting the unfortunate geese to the cruelties described, by following the directions here given. Take the livers from 3 fine fat geese, such as are ordinarily brought to market, and in drawing the birds be careful not to break the gall-bag, as the contents would impart a bitter taste to the livers. Carefully remove any yellow spots there may be upon them, and lay the livers in milk for six or eight hours to whiten; cut them in halves, and put 3 halves aside for force-meat. Soak, wash, and scrub, and peel 3/4 of a pound of truffles, carefully preserving the cuttings. Slice 1/3 of them into narrow strips, like lardoons, and stick them into the remainder of the livers 3/4 of an inch apart; sprinkle over them a little pepper, salt, and spice, and put them in a cool place until the force-meat is made. Mince finely, first separately, and afterwards together, 1 pound of fresh bacon, 1/3 of the truffles, the halves of the livers that were put away for the purpose, 2 shallots, and 8 or 10 button mushrooms; season the mixture with plenty of pepper and salt, 2 or 3 grates of nutmeg, and 1/2 saltspoonful of powdered marjoram, and keep chopping until it is quite smooth. Make the paste according to the directions given in paste for raised pies. Cover the bottom of the pie with thin rashers of ham, fat and lean together; spread evenly on these 1/2 of the force-meat, then put in the 3 livers, with the slices of truffle stuck in them, and afterwards the remainder of the force-meat. Intersperse amongst the contents of the pie the remaining 1/4 of a pound of truffles, and cover the whole with 2 or 3 more slices of ham or bacon. Put the cover on the pie, ornament as fancy dictates, brush it over with beaten egg, make a hole in the centre for the steam to escape, and bake in a moderate oven. Time to bake, two hours or more. Sufficient for a dozen persons.
This is a raised pie in the English style rather than a smooth potted terrine: hot-water-crust pastry, layered ham, forcemeat and whole lobes of liver, baked and served cold in slices. The instructions assume you have already made the crust from the book's separate entry on paste for raised pies.
- The hinge: keep the livers whole and coolThe whole lobes studded with truffle strips are the point of the dish — they should read as slices of liver set in forcemeat, not as a paste. Work them chilled and handle them as little as possible, since warm goose liver renders its fat and collapses.
- Moderate ovenRead as 350F. A raised pie of this depth wants steady heat for the full two hours; if the crust colours too fast, tent the top with foil after the first 45 minutes.
- DonenessThe original gives no internal temperature. The forcemeat contains raw pork fat and liver, so take the centre to 160F on a probe pushed through the steam hole.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is usually reckoned as a quarter of a teaspoon. Half a saltspoonful of dried marjoram is then about an eighth of a teaspoon — less than it looks on the page.
- The livers themselvesThree ordinary goose livers come to something under a pound in total. Goose liver is a special order from most butchers; free-range duck livers are the closest substitute, and chicken livers will work though they are softer and paler in flavour. The milk soak still helps draw out blood and any bitterness.
- The gall bladderBirds now come drawn, so this warning rarely applies — but check any liver you buy for a greenish stain along one lobe and cut that part away, as bile bitterness will carry through the whole pie.
- TrufflesThree-quarters of a pound of fresh truffle is now a luxury far beyond the rest of the dish. Cooked, brined truffle pieces plus their liquor, or a large quantity of finely minced cremini and dried porcini in the forcemeat, gives the dark, earthy effect the recipe is after; keep a few good slices whole for studding the lobes.
- Fresh bacon"Fresh bacon" here means unsmoked, uncured pork belly or back fat, not breakfast bacon. Using cured smoked bacon in the forcemeat will make the whole pie salty and smoky.
- Serving and yieldTwelve portions. Raised pies of this kind were generally served cold, so cool it completely, ideally overnight in the refrigerator; a little clarified aspic or reduced stock poured through the steam hole once the pie is cool will fill the gap left as the filling shrinks, a treatment found with other period raised pies though this entry does not mention it.
Strasbourg pâté was one of the great luxury exports of nineteenth-century Europe, and English and American cookbooks of the period treated it as something to be admired at a distance and then imitated at home. The technique the passage describes — confining geese and force-feeding them so the liver swells and pales — is gavage, generally traced in its French commercial form to Alsace in the later eighteenth century, though fattened goose liver was eaten in the ancient Mediterranean world as well. What is striking in this entry is the compiler's open distaste: rather than simply omitting the method, the book explains it, calls it cruel, and offers a workaround using the livers of ordinary market geese, bulked out with truffle and pork forcemeat inside a raised crust. That places the dish squarely in the English pie tradition rather than the French terrine one, and it reflects a broader habit of these consolidated household libraries, which routinely taught middle-class cooks to approximate the tables of the rich with what a butcher could actually supply.