No. 2600

Terrine de Nerac

Cut off the feet and wings from a medium-sized partridge; bone and season with allspice (No. 168); take out the liver and carefully remove the gall from it, then pound and mix it to pound again with half a pound of chopped pork forcemeat (No. 68). Cut up some cooked ham, some tongue, truffles, fat pork, and the minion fillets taken from the partridge, in quarter-inch square pieces; mix all in with the forcemeat, and with it fill the boned partridge, proceeding the same as for a boned chicken (No. 2485a). Line a terrine of the same capacity as the boned partridge (one that can be placed in the oven) with slices of fat pork; on top of this set a layer of the pork forcemeat, and then put in the partridge with the breast downward; finish filling up with truffles and more forcemeat, and lay slices of fat pork on top. Set the cover on and fasten it all around with strips of paper dipped in a flour and water paste; bake it one and a half to two hours, more or less, according to the size and thickness of the terrine. After removing and unfastening it put inside a smaller cover that can easily enter the top, to take the place of its own, and press lightly under a weight; drain off all the grease arising over the inside cover which is used for pressing it, and when the contents are perfectly cold remove the small cover and pour back the grease previously removed, and after this has cooled off cover the whole with melted lard. Return the original cover to the terrine after washing it well; fasten it on again with pasted tin foil and keep it in a cool place. When wanted for use take off all the grease, unmold, dress and garnish around with chopped jelly, or it may be served in its own terrine.

← No. 2599 Terrine of Larks Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2601 Terrine of Plovers and Larks →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer's terrine is a fully cooked forcemeat, but the recipe's whole point is the keeping — sealed under lard behind a paper-luted lid and held in "a cool place" for an indefinite period. That is the part that no longer stands up, and it is not a detail you can work around by adjusting the oven.

The lard seal is the hazardMelted lard poured over cooked meat creates exactly the oxygen-free environment in which Clostridium botulinum spores germinate, and the spores survive the baking. Nothing in the recipe — no nitrite, no measured salt, no acid, no stated storage temperature — keeps them in check. Ranhofer's "cool place" meant a cellar or ice room whose temperature nobody measured, and cellar temperatures sit comfortably in the growth range.
No temperature, no time you can trustThe original gives "one and a half to two hours, more or less, according to the size and thickness of the terrine" and no oven setting at all, on the assumption of a cook who knew the range and the dish. There is no way to convert that into a verified internal temperature for a stuffed boned bird packed in fat. If you want to make a game terrine, work from a current recipe with a probe temperature and refrigerated storage.
Allspice, No. 168Probably not the whole berry. The cross-reference points to Ranhofer's own numbered spice preparation, a ground mixed-spice blend of the épices fines type rather than the single spice, so reading 'allspice' here as allspice berries is likely to miss the intent.
Fat porkFresh unsmoked back fat — barding fat — not salt pork or bacon. It lines the terrine, tops it, and is cut into dice for the forcemeat. Smoked or heavily cured fat would swamp the partridge.
Minion filletsThe two small tenderloins lying under the breast of the bird, the filets mignons of the partridge. They are pulled out and diced with the ham, tongue and truffle rather than left on the breast.
The gall bladderThe instruction to remove the gall carefully from the liver is not fussiness. A nicked gall bladder floods the liver with bile and turns the whole forcemeat bitter beyond rescue.
Luting with pasteStrips of paper dipped in flour-and-water paste seal the lid so steam cannot escape. It is a genuine technique, the same principle as a pastry luting on a daube, and it is the reason the terrine cooks in its own moisture.
Sourcing the birdWild partridge is game and not sold through ordinary butchers in most of the United States; farmed partridge and chukar are available from game suppliers. Truffle, ham, tongue and back fat will also need a specialist source.

A Little History

N u00e9rac, in Gascony on the Ba u00efse, is long associated with potted game, and terrines and p u00e2t u00e9s de perdreaux carrying the town's name circulated as luxury goods well before Ranhofer put this in The Epicurean (1894) u2014 the local red-legged partridge, truffles from the southwest, and enough fat to seal the pot for travel. The name on a menu functioned much as a place name on a wine label does, a claim of origin rather than a fixed formula. Ranhofer, who ran the Delmonico's kitchens for some three decades, files it among garnishings for cold dishes: unmolded onto a base, ringed with chopped aspic, and set out on the buffet as one item among many. The construction u2014 a bird boned whole, restuffed with a forcemeat carrying diced ham, tongue and truffle, then buried in more forcemeat inside its pot u2014 sits close to the galantine and ballotine methods of period grand cuisine, and the cross-references to Nos. 68, 168 and 2485a show how far the book expects its reader to already know.