terrine mold- necessary?

[chrisandbetsyc]

I'm an accomplished cook who is interested in trying out pate/terrine making. I've read a great deal and have read conflicting opinions on whether or not an actual 'mold' is necessary or using a loaf pan is fine. Beyond that --is a lid necessary and what is the 'best' material? I've seen metal, non-stick (no way thats the right choice!), porcelin and even enameled cast iron (all hail Le Creuset). I'm pretty sure my first attempt will be in a loaf pan..not gong to spend money on something I might hate making and eating..but I hope to learn from ya'll if I may notice a difference in making the investment. Thanks

[chrisandbetsyc]

Great advice...pretty much what i exspected to hear. thanks for the responces. c

[wrenhunter]

I'm glad to see these replies, because I'd like to try a terrine, also. The LC terrine is lovely, but dear. Does the lid or foil need to make contact with the top of the terrine, or is it just enough to enclose the pan? I have a pain de mie pan that might do the trick.

[vanillagorilla]

the lid needs to make contact, or you need to come up with some way to weigh down the pate as it cools.

[FlyFish]

I've never tried to get the pate into contact with the lid - I think it may be different for pate en croute, but it's not necessary for a plain old pate and in fact the LC lid is somewhat domed anyway, so it would be a good trick to get it into contact with the meat mixture. I do weight the pate down as it cools, however - for that, I cut a piece of plywood to just fit my pan and wrap it in foil, then use some old lead SCUBA weights to press it down. It's a simple matter to toss the foil and store the plywood and weights along with the terrine for the next time.

[JoanN]

The only time I ever use a paté mold is for making paté en croute. Because the mold is hinged, it’s the easiest way to get the paté en croute on to a serving plate in one attractive piece. I have a couple of paté recipes, not layered obviously, that I just pack into a decorative crock. Anything else, I use a loaf pan. I don’t recall ever having had a problem with a recipe due to the non-traditional shape of the pan.

[MMRuth]

Is that a metal mold?

[JoanN]

Yes. Tin, I believe. There are pictures of them on page 326 of MtAoFC, Vol II. And that's the recipe I used to make. Haven't done it in years, but it sure made one helluvan impressive presentation.

[yayadave]

See these things. You remove the pins in the corners and the sides fall away. I think you'd want the small, 3"x3", for something extremely rich.

http://www.fantes.com/loaf-pans.html#...

[Sooeygun]

At school and at work I have made them in loaf pans. We used a longer thinner loaf pan than the household standard, but they were the same pans we made the banana loaves in. I wouldn't fork out the money for a special pan until you are sure that you want to make them again.

[Davwud]

I've never done it but isn't a terrine mold ulitmately just a loaf pan??

DT

[MMRuth]

Ultimately, yes. I have one of the LC ones and like it because, as FlyFish wrote, you get a longer, narrower loaf, but there's no reason a loaf pan won't work as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Creuset-Enamele... - here they say that the enameled cast iron helps it cook more evenly, etc.

[FlyFish]

I've made pate in loaf pans using a simple foil cover, and I've made them in the dedicated LC terrine - they taste the same. The shape of the LC terrine ends up giving you a smaller cross-section for the finished product, but that's about it. It's just a meatloaf, after all.