Pâté de Campagne Breton

Appearance & taste

Because the ingredients are only coarsely chopped, the cut face shows many larger, evenly distributed pieces. The grain size is at least 8 mm, at least 6 mm for packs of up to 200 g. The pâté is rather dark and firm and has a brown crust; fresh pâté is also covered with caul fat. It tastes distinctly of pork, liver and onions. According to the specification, the liver provides spiciness, colour, creaminess and the particular taste; the onions serve as a seasoning.

It is sold fresh in the terrine, loose at the place of production, freshly sliced and packed, or sterilised in cans and jars, weighing between 40 g and 10 kg.

Production

The pâté consists only of pork meat and offal. Rindless pork cheek (at least 25 %), liver (at least 20 %), cooked rind (at least 5 %) and fresh onions (at least 5 %) are mandatory; lean meat, fat, the edible parts of the head and the heart can be added. Meat and onions must be fresh. The pigs come from registered breeds, weigh more than 80 kg when slaughtered and rest for at least two hours before slaughter.

All other ingredients apart from the onions together make up at most 15 % of the forcemeat. Permitted are, among others, water, stock, sugar, fresh eggs, flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic, shallots, parsley, thyme and bay leaf, cider, apple brandy such as Lambig, Chouchen (a kind of mead), sodium or potassium nitrite and caramel for colouring.

The coarse pieces are mixed with a fine forcemeat of meat and the other ingredients; the fat can be worked in warm. Fresh pâté is covered with fresh caul fat and cooked in the oven so that the crust forms. Pâté for preserves is browned in the oven until it has a brown crust before being sealed and sterilised. It is made in the area of origin.

Origin & history

The area corresponds to historic Brittany. As early as the 16th century, when Brittany was still an independent duchy, families slaughtered their own pigs and made their own sausages and cured meats. Farming specialised early on in livestock, and pigs were kept on every farm. The pâté used up the offal and scraps of meat left over from cutting up the carcass; it was prepared after the pig-killing feast, the “Fest an oc’h”. The onions came from the area’s abundant vegetable growing.

The meat was cut up with a cleaver and knife, hence the coarse grain. The pâté was cooked in the village baker’s oven in open dishes, the “Plats sabots” or “Casse à pâté”. In the dry oven the sugar caramelised into a brown crust, and the caul fat held the forcemeat in shape and protected it from drying out. At the end of the 19th century the Breton fish canning industry began to can other foods as well; this is how the pâté also came to be sold preserved.