Pâté - has it fallen out of fashion?

Morning Glory

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I remember a time when I used to make a lot of Pâtés and Terrines - it was probably back in the late '70's to mid '80's. I really love them but rarely make them any more. Am I a victim of fashion? It used to be the case that pâté was often offered as a starter in restaurants and also as a pub lunch, with toast or crusty bread. Its rare now in the UK.

Chicken liver pâté is an old favourite and still seems to appear here and there. But what about all those other marvellous pâtés and terrines? Vegetarian and vegan pâté is wonderful, especially mushroom pâté.

Do you ever make terrines or pâté? Is it popular in your country?
 
I've never made a pâté and have eaten it just twice. Both times, it tasted fine, but it wasn't something I'd go out of my way to eat again.

Terrines - I think I've only ever seen those twice as well, and not in person, but on cooking shows, and both were European cooks. Before that, I wouldn't have known what a terrine was, I'd never heard of one.

I always hate trying to answer for my entire country, because I'm sure there are plenty of places here where pâté is consumed, and I'd certainly heard of pâté, even as a child, but it was something we never ate, never saw it before, and my only exposure was through TV shows and books. Much like caviar, pâté was something rich people/city people/movie stars/sophisticated people ate, like on The Love Boat or Dynasty. Lump escargot in there as well.

I do know this - we rarely run across people who eat pâté, and if it's mentioned, we'll get the "oh, ick, you do know how they make that stuff, right?" MrsTasty has had more than one travel client mention that somewhere she sent them (cruise or all-inclusive) had pâté, "but there was no way we were trying that!"

Excepting veg* ones, I would guess that as animal cruelty awareness has risen, pâté consumption has gone the way of wearing fur - people still do it, but you might get a lecture about it.

I've never seen pâté on a menu in the US, and when we eat out, we frequent some fairly nice/spendy places, though admittedly, we rarely go to dedicated French restaurants.

Circling back to terrines - it occurs to me that I did grow up eating headcheese and sousemeat, and those must at least be related to terrines, so I'm off to do a little research on that. Depending on what I find, I may have to change my answer.

Circling back a second time, now to the pâté, we used to belong to a German culture club, and when we would go to parties there, like New Year's Eve, there'd be pâté. These weren't catered per se, the food was all made by the members. So I misspoke earlier - I have seen pâté here!
 
From Wikipedia:

"Head cheese is not a dairy cheese, but a terrine or meat jelly often made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig..."

So, yep, I've eaten plenty of terrines in my time, apparently. Headcheese and sousemeat are definitely available at local butchers here.

A terrine by any other name would taste as...chunky? :laugh:
 
I first tried chicken liver pate about 40 years ago. It was a starter. It was a high end restaurant, so flash stuff on the menu. When I find something I have to replicate the recipe. Mine is dam good if not better than I used to order. It's still served a lot here as well. Some good, some bad. My family all love it as well. I only made some last week. My son took a ramekin of it home. Served with pickles and cheeses.

Russ
 
Chicken live Pate is one of my favourite starters, and is quite common on menus around here. My wife makes a batch every Christmas, which is the best. Terrines crop up occasionally, but I always find their appearance to be more impressive than their taste. Having said that, we have one in the freezer that I knocked up last year for a picnic that never happened. I was quite chuffed with it at the time, but I now can't remember what is in it.
 
I love rillettes (pork). I virtually lived on it with crusty French bread in Paris in the early 70s. Since then I've had a few attempts at making it myself but with little success. Maybe I'll have another go. We cannot buy it here as far as I know.
 
Excepting veg* ones, I would guess that as animal cruelty awareness has risen, pâté consumption has gone the way of wearing fur - people still do it, but you might get a lecture about it.

Why would eating pâté be any worse than eating any meat? Its not made from meat farmed in a particular way. Maybe you are thinking of Fois Gras? That is the only pâté I can think of which is linked to cruelty (force fed geese). I've made all sorts of terrines & pâtés in the past - often using pork, brandy, spices.
 
We've made pate quite a few times and terrines several times. I think there might be some terrine made with chicken liver in the deep freeze in fact. Neither is something we make often.

At least 2 of the higher end markets we visit on occasion have pates in their cheese cases so obviously enough people buy it to make it profitable. I think it's the fact that liver is associated with pates and terrines a lot that makes people turn up their noses. You rarely see liver and onions on a restaurant menu (or fried chicken livers) anymore, at least in this area.
 
Why would eating pâté be any worse than eating any meat? Its not made from meat farmed in a particular way. Maybe you are thinking of Fois Gras?
Yep. I don't know anyone who would know the difference between pâté in general and fois gras. It's all lumped into "pâté" and it's all painted with the same brush of force-feeding geese.

I don't think I even know anyone who's heard the term "fois gras!" - keep in mind, I think (purely supposition on my part) there is much, much more of a tradition of pâté consumption in Europe than there ever has been here in US, so we're already starting at a disadvantage with the subject.

And yet, I grew up regularly eating squirrels' brains...:)
 
"What am I, chopped liver?" This is a form of pate and very popular in Jewish delis. I love Braunschweiger, but haven't had it in years. You can buy it in most grocery stores.
 
My Hungarian grandmother made chopped liver often. Other dishes often found on the table were Borscht or beets, horseradish gefilte fish, bagels or challah, lox, cream cheese, potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream, roast chicken. It was part of a huge Saturday or Sunday family feast. From time to time, I'll order it on rye, or egg bread, with a side of potato or cold macaroni salad and pickles. Some places offer 1/2 and 1/2. Half of a chopped liver sandwich, and the other half is any deli meat of choice, i.e. pastrami, corned beef, brisket, etc.
 
Lightly fried and scrambled in eggs mainly. When I was a kid, squirrels' brains were common enough, we could buy them tinned (though we never did, we had plenty accessible on the paw, as it were).

Squirrel was absolutely my granddad's favorite food, even over pork. He loved squirrel. I can still see him skinning and cleaning them on his front porch.
 
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