A Covenant Terrine

This Farm Note is from the archives, before I began to regularly post on the blog. The Farm Notes began in 1999 and were shared for those years with a group of friends and family. Over the coming year I will post periodically from those archived “Notes.”

We speak today of jellied meatloaf. Terrines, that wonderful pressed meat dish that turns cast-off odd bits into tasty treats. Headcheese is a form of terrine. Basically any meat mixture that once cooked has a weight placed on it to compress the ingredients is a form of terrine. The recipes are numerous: pigs-feet terrines, foie gras terrines, lamb kidney terrines are just a few gleaned from a random perusal of our cookbooks.

Technically a terrine is the container in which the dish is cooked. But, over the years it has come to be synonymous with the end result. That is at least according to Elizabeth David in her classic French Provincial Cooking. Below is my version of a goose giblet and venison terrine.

Our roast goose at the New Year and the confit made with the legs and goose fat had been excellent. But, what to do with the giblets besides adding them to the gravy? A terrine, that French jellied style meatloaf served cold, was our answer.

I include this in the farm notes because it gets to the heart of one core value in farming: thrift. Making use of everything is not limited to farming, of course. But for us it seems to resonate more now that we live on a farm. Thrift is a more intimate trait, a principled outcome, to that process and work of growing food and raising animals.

And we feel that killing an animal for your own use establishes a covenant between you and that animal: a covenant to make use of every part. And making something wonderful to eat is the best way to honor that life.

Goose Giblet and Venison Terrine

Chop up some stock vegetables; add the goose neck (cut into a few pieces), the gizzard, heart and a bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1.5 hours. Discard the veggies (our pigs loved them), save the stock for gravy, pick the meat off of the neck and roughly chop the gizzard and heart.

To this meat-mixture add the liver, finely chopped. Add a nice sized dollop of goose fat, fresh thyme and sage leaves (chopped), freshly grated nutmeg, 1-2 tablespoons of brandy, 1-2 tablespoons of bread crumbs and an egg. The recipe called for a ½ pound of sausage. Conveniently our friend Melanie had gifted us some of her homemade deer sausage. Toss it all together and mix well. Add plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper.

Place mixture in a terrine and cover with foil. Place the terrine in a water bath. Place all in a 330 degree oven for 1.5 hours. Remove and weight down with a heavy object that fits within the terrine until cool. Slice thick and serve cold with chutney and a pickle.

Pretty damn good, I must say.