Three Kinds of Pork Pate Recipe

This is a truly serious pâté – try our pork pate recipe once and you’ll be hooked.

Best season to enjoy: a winter’s evening with a glass of pinot, or perhaps a fruity IPA

100g pig’s liver
50g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
4 smoked bacon rashers
4 tbsp Madeira or port
8 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
Large handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
25g fresh breadcrumbs
300g skinless pork belly, roughly chopped
25g unsalted pistachio kernels
4 bay leaves

Perhaps the pâté to end all pâtés, this rich concoction uses three different parts of the pig: liver, belly and bacon. It’s a variation on a classic, rustic French dish by the excellent food and dining magazine, delicious, which has recipes generally approachable for home cooks. It is a little more involved than the previous recipes — but you should think of that time as an investment in this deeply good porky pâté.

Firstly, you’ll need to source some good local pork, and again, your butcher is your friend. Over 70 percent of Australian smallgoods are made from imported pork. And, around 94 percent of Australian pork comes from factory farms. So it pays to be vigilant in checking where it comes from — a short conversation with your butcher is all it takes to ascertain its quality. Organic or pasture-raised is worth the cost for the taste belly.

Love pâté? We’ve got five recipes you need to try here.

Sterilise four small Kilner jars, which is easier than it sounds. Simply dunk them in boiling water with a pair of tongs (being extremely careful not to splash yourself), and pop them in a low oven to dry. Afterwards, try not to get your fingers in them.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (a $5 oven thermometer can help you do that accurately). Clean the liver under cold water and peel off any membrane. Then heat 25g of butter and cook the garlic and onion together until soft. Spoon it out into a generously sized container and set aside. In the same pan, melt the remaining butter and fry up your bacon and liver until they’re both golden. After around five minutes, transfer the meat into a bowl to cool.

Turn up the heat under the frying pan as high as it will go and pour in the Madeira or port, scraping the bottom to help soak up all those caramelised juices. Things at this point should begin to smell amazing. Once the pan is clean, pour the liquid over the onions, and add your herbs and spices, the breadcrumbs and seasoning.

Next, you’ll need to blend the pork belly and the cooked liver and bacon in your food processor. What you’re aiming for is ‘rustic’ — not a superfine paste, but not a chunky terrine. You’ll find a happy medium. Once appropriately blended, add to the onion mix in a large bowl and bring it all together, stirring the pistachios into the mix.

Spoon the mixture into your sterilised jars, and pop a bay leaf on top of each before snapping them closed. Sit the jars in your largest roasting tin, evenly spaced. Fill the tin with water until it reaches halfway up the side of each jar and pop the whole thing in the pre-heated oven. Cook for one-and-a-half hours. Remove from oven and cool before popping them into the fridge, where they’ll stay for up to a week. Or you can distribute them to friends, who will name their first-born children after you in appreciation.

But, if you choose to eat them all yourself, make sure you do so with a crusty sourdough, a wedge of aged cheddar, and perhaps a hoppy IPA, which pairs divinely with pork. A pinot from the Mornington Peninsula wouldn’t go too badly, either.

Three kinds of pork pate recipe

This is a truly serious pâté – try our pork pate recipe once and you’ll be hooked.

Love pâté? We’ve got five recipes you need to try here.

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