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How to Make Blackbird Pate
Recipe for Pate de Meles from Corsica..
Ever the one for an unusual recipe! Here’s one I found in a glorious book my brother bought me called ‘Secrets of the Great French Restaurants’ published in 1971. It’s from restaurant L’Auberge in L’ile Rousse, Corsica and makes for interesting reading-particularly the last part…
“A unique pate made with the Corsican blackbirds that are very common in the wild bushland of the island. Their flesh acquires a very special flavour from the berries they eat. Their dark brown plumage distinguishes them from the blackbirds of the mainland and their fleash is far more tender and tasty. During the shooting season they are killed by the hundred, hence the exceptionally large quantities given in the recipe.
For 100 birds take the same weight of chicken livers and a pieceof neck of pork equal to two-thirds of the weight of the birds.
4dl Madeira, chopped truffles, 7g salt per 50g meat, 1g freshly milled pepper, 7 juniper berries, grated nutmeg, 50g cornflour, ½ dl cognac, ½ dl spirit of myrtle
Stew the birds for 3 or 4 minutes in 3 decilitres of the Madeira. Leave to cool then bone them. Finely chop flesh of birds and the livers. Roughly chop pork and the truffles, keeping the two separate. Put all of the ingredients into a bowl along with the cornflour, myrtle, Madeira and cognac.
Cook by steaming in tightly sealed containers. Give the terrines two cookings of one hour each, with an interval of 48 hours in between.”
NB: How times change, cooking a pork product halfway and then re-cooking it two days later!
Will it be appearing on your menus Miles ?
I have nt the confidence to make terrines. I do make pates which are fairly simple enough.
But I had an amazing smoked ham hock terrine with home made piccallili at Belfast Castle in summer ; it was fantastic but I have nt tried making one .
January 24, 2013 @ 11:40 am
V,
Doubt it somehow
That is a nice terrine and really easy to make, easier than pate V, to be honest.
January 24, 2013 @ 6:49 pm
Fascinating stuff, old recipes are part of social history as well, pleased the book proved to be of some interest.
Regards,
Rod
January 24, 2013 @ 8:02 pm
Rod,
It’s a fabulous book which I have shown to some of my chefs, it is absolutely a part of our social history and food trends are a brilliant indicator of life at that particular time in my opinion.
January 24, 2013 @ 11:18 pm
Wow!
Is it wrong that I want to taste it?
January 25, 2013 @ 9:12 am
Sam,
Kind of yes!!!!
January 25, 2013 @ 7:48 pm