Pâté en Croûte Recipe – Homemade Meat Pie in Pastry
- Type
- Pâté & terrine
- Level
- Medium
- Rating
- Rate this recipe
Today I will show you how to make a Pâté en croûte yourself. It consists of a meat filling with savory ingredients. The filling is coated with a lard dough or puff pastry. Afterwards, it is baked in the oven.
I make the dough for the Pâté myself. But you can also use a store bought puff pastry.
But now enough talk…
Here you can find the complete Pâté en croûte recipe as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
Pâté en croûte – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 625 g
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| pork butt | 400 g |
| brown mushrooms | 250 g |
| bacon | 125 g |
| lean beef | 100 g |
| onion | 75 g |
| pistachios | 65 g |
| cream | 50 ml |
| milk | 50 ml |
| dry white bread | 50 g |
| salt | 10.5 g |
| black pepper | 2 g |
| cure#1 (Alternative: normal salt -> pâté will not be pink but rather grayish when cut) | 1.5 g |
Spices per 625 g
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| aspic | |
| About 150ml vegetable broth | — |
| Aspic powder (enough to make it firm to the bite) | — |
For the dough you need either ready-made puff pastry or alternatively, you make a lard pie dough yourself:
Make your own lard pie dough
- 325g flour
- 250 g lard
- 90 g cold water
- 6 g salt
- 2.5 g sugar
Leftovers of this dough are also excellent for a simple apple pie.
The equipment to make Pâté en croûte
Pâté dish / glasses / aluminium dish / other dishes
It is up to you which dish you use to make the Pâté. You can achieve the same result with any shape.
You need the meat grinder, also called a mincer, to “grind” the meat, which means the meat is finely chopped.
Make Pâté en croûte – Step-By-Step Instructions
The dough:
Cut the lard into cubes.
Put the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor together with the lard.
Always turn the food processor on and off. The lard and flour should mix a little, but you should still see whole pieces of lard. This is the only way to get a nice crust later.
Gradually add the cold water.
The dough is now ready. It is not completely homogeneous, but it should combine when pressed together. Put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. The dough can also be prepared the day before.
The pate:
Quarter your mushrooms first and finely dice the onion.
Put the mushrooms in a hot pan without oil. The goal is for the mushrooms to lose some water and brown.
If the mushrooms have lost some water and are brown, you can add some oil.
Now you can add the diced onions to the mushrooms.
When the onions are translucent, remove the pan from the heat and let them cool down.
Cut the meat into wolf-sized pieces. You can vary the size depending on how big your meat grinder is.
Now you can grind the meat. Depending on how coarse or fine you want your Pâté en croûte to be, you can use different perforated discs here. To be honest, this is a matter of taste. I personally use the finest perforated disc. But as I said … it must taste good to you!
Cut the bacon into small cubes.
Add the bacon to the minced meat together with the spices and the rest of the ingredients and the onion-mushroom mixture and mix it all together.
Mix the ingredients until they form a homogeneous mass.
grease the baking dish generously.
Roll out your lard dough to a thickness of about 0.5 cm. Alternatively, you can now use the ready-made puff pastry.
Place your mold on the dough and cut the corners. This will help the dough to go into the mold more nicely.
Roll the dough on your rolling pin and put it into the form.
Fill the tureen with the meat and mushroom mixture. Make sure there is as little air in the mixture as possible.
Cut off the excess dough around the edge.
Put some egg mixed with water on top of the pie.
Roll out a lid from the excess dough and put it on the pie.
Cut off the excess dough at the edge and press the lid again.
Cut small holes in the pastry lid. This is important so that the evaporated water can escape. You can also decorate the lid with the remaining dough. This is up to you.
Put the pâté in an oven preheated to 220°C / 428 °F(top and bottom heat) for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, set the degree to 180°C / 356 °F and bake the Pâté for another 30-40 minutes.
Let the Pâté en croûte cool down to room temperature.
Make the aspic. I use vegetable broth and aspic powder here.
Fill the aspic into the holes of the pâté. The aspic seals our spaces in the pate.
Ready is your Pâté en croûte 😄. Enjoy.
Frequently asked questions
What is pâté en croûte?
What is pâté en croûte?
En croûte means in a crust. A pâté en croûte is a seasoned meat filling baked inside a pastry case, sliced cold, and eaten as a starter or on a cold plate. English sometimes calls it a terrine pie, which describes it well enough: the same filling that would go into a terrine mould, wrapped in dough instead.
The aspic is not decoration. Meat shrinks as it bakes and leaves a gap between the filling and the crust, so you pour warm aspic into that gap once the pie has cooled. It fills the space, keeps air off the meat and holds the slice together when you cut it.
You can use ready-made puff pastry and it will work. The lard pie dough in this recipe holds its shape better in a tall mould and stands up to the filling without going soggy, which is why I make it myself. This is completely up to your taste and how much time you have.
Can you make pâté en croûte with duck?
Can you make pâté en croûte with duck?
Yes, and it is a classic pairing. Duck is darker and richer than pork shoulder, so treat it as part of the filling rather than all of it. Replacing the lean beef with duck breast and leaving the pork butt, the bacon and the binder as they are gives you the flavour without losing the bind.
Important: whatever meat you use, the filling still has to reach the core temperature in the recipe. Duck does not change that.
How long is the shelf life of the Pâté en croûte?
How long is the shelf life of the Pâté en croûte?
It can be kept in the refrigerator for about 1 week. You can also freeze it perfectly portioned. Then it will keep for a few months.
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