Terrine de Canard - Duck Terrine

Terrine is such a quintessential part of French cuisine and is a great addition to any "apero" or dinner party. Most of the time I just buy a terrine at the market (never at the grocery store), at the local charcuterie but this holiday season I decided to make one to have over Christmas.

We always serve a bit of terrine at our cheese & wine classes that we offer to our guests. Terrine defers from paté in that it is not smooth (most of the time). This is the third time I have done this terrine though previously I made it with less whole pieces but I am dying to have my French friends try it and give me their opinion.

Yield: 1 3lb terrine
Ingredients
8 ozs duck meat (from the leg meat of 1 4-5lb duck that has been de-boned; some of the breast meat can be used if the legs don't yield the full amount of meat.)
Reserved boneless and skinless breast meat, cut into 1/2 "thick strips (for garnish)
8ozs. lean pork cubes
16ozs ground lean pork
fat back for lining your terrine
Grated zest of 1/2 orange
3 shallots, finely minced
2ozs white wine
1oz brandy
1/2 oz paté spice or "quatre epices"
7 oz Reserved duck livers, trimmed and soaked in milk
6 oz pistachio
1 egg
Salt and pepper, to taste (5g salt & 2 g pepper per pound of terrine mix is a good base)
Paté Spice
Yield: 5 ozs
2/3 oz black peppercorns	1/2 oz paprika
2/3 oz white peppercorns	1/2 oz dried thyme
2/3 oz dried basil	1/4 oz dried marjoram
1/2 oz cloves	1/4 mace
1/2 oz dried ginger	1/8 oz bay leaf
1/2 oz nutmeg
Procedure
1. Remove any tendons from the duck leg meat and cut into 1/2" cubes. If using any breast meat for the farce, cut the same way. Cut the remaining breast meat in strips as indicated.     2. Soak the duck livers in milk for 2 hours (the purpose is to drain the blood). remove the livers from the liquid. 3. Mince the shallots and livers in a food processor. Add the wine. 4. Mix the proceeded ingredients with the ground fat back. Add the grated zest.   5. Add the pistachio. Weigh your mix to determine how much salt and pepper you should add.    6. Mix well. It is a good idea to test a portion of the terrine mix to determine if you need to add any more salt or pepper.     7. Line a terrine mold with plastic wrap then with thinly sliced fatback or caul fat. Place a layer of forcemeat on the bottom of the mold, enough to fill up around a third of the terrine. Put a few strips of duck breast meat on top of the foremeat and then add another layer of forcemeat. 8. Fold over the edges of the fatback over the forcemeat and then seal off with the plastic wrap. 9. Place the terrine into a larger baking dish and fill the dish halfway up with water. Place the baking dish into the middle of the oven at 350ºF. Bake until the internal temperature is at 165ºF. 10. Allow the terrine to cool, weigh it down and refrigerate. To serve, unmold and slice. Note: We had leftover farce but no other mold to bake it in, so we made a ballotine. For Ballotine: Place plastic wrap on a table then an equal amount of aluminum foil. Distribute the farce evenly in a line and tuck under the foil and plastic as if you were rolling a cigar. continue rolling and twist both ends till you have a tight log. Normally a ballotine is boiled in water on the stove top but we made another bain marie (water bath), and baked it along with the farce in the terrines. Bon appetit! Et Bonne fête!