Perfect Homemade Pâté with Chunks of Meat
·Grind and season the meat
Grind the liver (any poultry liver works), lard and pork shoulder through a meat grinder. Season the mixture with salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Feel free to add a shot of brandy — it will only do the pâté good. I like to season mine with a French pâté spice blend I brought back from France.
Transfer to a baking dish
You can line your baking dish with slices of streaky bacon if you like, but it's not essential. Transfer the meat mixture into the dish, pressing it down firmly and smoothing the top.
Cover the dish
Cover with a lid. If your dish doesn't have one, you can cover the surface with foil instead — or leave it uncovered, as I do, for a nicely browned top.
Set up the water bath
Place the dish with the pâté inside a larger container — ideally a roasting tin filled with water. The dish needs to sit in water reaching about halfway to two-thirds up its sides.
Bake
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for about two hours. The exact baking time depends a lot on the depth of the pâté in the dish — if you use a wider dish so the meat sits lower, it will bake faster.
Cool and serve with bread
Take it out of the oven and let it cool completely, ideally overnight, so the flavours have time to settle. Serve with some good bread.
