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Pate served with toast points, sliced mango, strawberry, French sea salt and a drizzle of purple fig sauce. Photo by Kelly Cline | IST.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE. She has burned out the motors of two appliances making pâté, and cedes the honors to Marcel et Henri.

November 2006

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Meat & Poultry

Marcel et Henri Charcuterie

Pate, Boudin, Saussice, Saucisson...And A Glossary To Explain It All

Charcuterie Glossary
Pâté Glossary
Sausage Glossary
Shopping Information

“Parlez-vous pâté?” ask Marcel et Henri? They certainly do: the company makes some of the best pates and other charcuterie we have tasted.

Charcutier Henri Lapuyade, founder of Marcel et Henri, started to make French pâtés in the United States in 1960. Beginning with a few recipes from his native France, he opened a small shop on San Francisco’s Russian Hill. Business thrived, his quality became renowned. In 1982 the French government awarded Henri the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole for carrying on the great culinary tradition in the United States, and in 1997 he was promoted to Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole. From that small shop on Russian Hill, Marcel et Henri pâtés have been enjoyed by many American Presidents, and are available to the rest of us at fine retailers nationwide.

The products read like a veritable glossary of great French charcuterie, so we’ve decided to write this review interweaving the products into a Pâté Glossary and a Sausage Glossary. First, we’ll start with an overview of the types of charcuterie.

Charcuterie Glossary

Charcuterie (shar-KOO-tuh-REE) are fancy pork and related products made by a charcutier (shar-koo-tee-AIR), a fancy pork butcher. Originally, the art of charcuterie was used to preserve meat in the Middle Ages. The art continues in France as a hallmark of fine cuisine. While many charcuterie products contain only pork as their meat base, just as often the pork is combined with other meats, fowl or game. Modern charcuterie has expanded to include items with no pork at all—products made only of poultry, venison, vegetables or fish. The following products are common offerings of a charcutier:

Boudin (boo-DAHN). The French word for pudding also doubles as the word for meat sausage, and, generically, any sausage-shaped mixture. Boudin blanc (boo-DAHN BLAHN), or white sausage, is a white sausage made of of veal, chicken, or pork. Boudin noir (boo-DAHN NWA), or red sausage, is pork blood sausage.
Fromage de Tête. Not a cheese, but a terrine of meat from the head of a calf or pig (sometimes a sheep or cow) that would not otherwise be considered appealing. Originally it was made entirely from the meaty parts of the head, but now can include meat from the feet, tongue, and heart. It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat.
Galantine (gah-la-TEEN). A preparation of boned meat or whole poultry that is stuffed or rolled, cooked, then glazed with gelatin and served cold. Unlike a pâté, the meat is not ground, and it is not spreadable. Galantines are most often served as a first course.
Pâté (pah-TAY). Pâté is the French word for paste, indicating elegant, well-seasoned ground meat, fish or vegetable preparations with a paste consistency. Pâtés are made in various spreadable textures and are served hot or cold as an hors d’oeuvre or a first course. They can be wrapped in fat or pastry. Technically, those wrapped in pastry should be called pâté, and those in pastry should be called terrine (see below). Pâtés are served cold, usually on toast. They are cooked one of two ways, either “pâté en croûte” (in crust) or “en terrine” (in a pork fat-lined container). Pâtés are probably the world's most adaptable culinary form and may be served as simply or as elegantly as suits the mood and the occasion.
Photo of D’Artagnan duck pâté. Read our review.
Mousse (MOOSE). A mousse is light, airy mixture usually containing eggs and cream, that can be sweet or savory. While savory mousses can have pudding-like consistencies just like chocolate mousse, a greater proportion of meat, fish or vegetable, creates a solid-form mousse. It is much lighter and spongier in texture than a pâté, and therefore more spreadable or malleable for hors d’oevres.
Poitrine (pwah-TREEN). Poitrine is a breast of meat or poultry, but when the word is modified, it refers to bacon. Poitrine demi-sel is an unsmoked slab bacon; poitrine fumée is smoked slab bacon; poitrine roulée is rolled bacon.
Rillettes (ree-YET). A highly spiced spread of meat or poultry first cooked in seasoned fat and then minced or pounded into a paste, and served as an appetizer with crackers or bread. Classic French rillettes are pork or rillettes d’oie, goose; but the spread can also be made with duck, fish or rabbit. After the rillettes are made, they are commonly placed in a ramekin and sealed with a thin layer of fat.
Saucisse (so-CEASE). A small, fresh sausage. Variations include saucisse chaude, warm sausage; saucisse de Francfort, a hot dog; saucisse de Strasbourg, a redskinned hot dog; and saucisse de Toulouse, a mild country-style pork sausage.
Saucisson (so-see-SOWN). A large air-dried sausage, such as salami, eaten sliced as a cold cut. When eaten fresh and warm, it is called saucisson chaud, or hot sausage. Variations include saucisson à l’ail, garlic sausage, usually served warm; saucisson d’Arles, a dried salami-style sausage of pork, beef and seasonings from Arles, in Provence; saucisson de campagne, any country-style sausage; saucisson de Lyon, air-dried pork sausage, flavored with garlic and pepper and studded with chunks of pork fat; saucisson de Morteau, plump smoked pork sausage that takes its name from the town of Morteau in the Jura (it is distinctive because a wooden peg is tied in the sausage casing on one end and it is traditionally the sausage eaten at Christmas, hence it it also called Jésus de Morteau); saucisson en croûte, sausage cooked in a pastry crust; and saucisson sec, any dried sausage, or salami.
Terrine (tuh-REEN). A terrine is an earthenware dish named after the French word terre, meaning “earth.” It denotes that the dish has been baked in an dish. Traditionally, pâté baked in pastry were made in long, loaf-shaped earthenware terrines. Today, metal forms with releasable sides are often used for ease in removing the pate. See also Pâté.

Pâté Glossary & Marcel et Henri’s Pâté Group

Pâtés vary in composition (type of meat or vegetable), texture can be smooth-as-silk to coarse-as-meat loaf (which is a type of pate), add-ins (truffles, spices, wine or spirits). Marcel et Henri’s 15-pâté selection (including galantines, which are boned but not ground, and mousses), create a veritable pâté glossary.

We haven’t done our usual “selection” because the pates aren’t available online: they’re carried by retailers nationwide, and your selection will be made by your retailer, who will give you a taste and let you decide on-the-spot. That having been said, our own personal tastes are for the creamy, spreadable mousse group as an hors d’oeuvre—whether duck or chicken liver—flavored with wine or liqueur. For a first course, we love the elegant galantines. And we could eat an entire Pâté du Jardin convincing ourselves it was all healthy vegetables and ignoring the cream content. But the stellar quality of the entire line is that each recipe is clearly articulated and none is “fatty”—the sign of top-quality ingredients and a charcutier who truly represents the finest French artisanship as an Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole.

Galantine de Canard avec Olives et Pistaches is a duck galantine with olives, pistachios and cognac, wrapped in duck skin.
Galantine de Dinde Truffe is a turkey galantine with truffles and Cognac.
Galantine de Veau aux Pistaches is white veal, pistachios and truffles.
Galantine de Canard Demi-Lune is duck galantine with olives and pistachios, filled with duck truffle mousse.
Galantine de Poulet Demi-Lune is chicken galantine with armagnac and black olives.

Un peu de pâté? You can try a different variety every other week for a year!

Mousse aux Cèpes is duck liver mousse with sherry wine and imported cepes, or porcini mushrooms.
Mousse de Foie de Canard au Pruneau combines duck liver mousse with plum wine and bits of prune.
Mousse de Foie de Canard Truffe is duck liver mousse with Port wine and truffles (Marcel et Henri adds 3% truffles!).
Mousse de Foie de Poulet au Kirsch is chicken liver mousse with kirsch.
Mousse de Foie de Poulet aux Noisettes is chicken liver mousse, hazelnut liqueur and hazelnuts.
Mousse de Foie de Poulet au Poivre Vert is chicken livers, green peppercorns and Madeira wine.
Mouse de Poulet au Roquefort is chicken liver mousse with Roquefort cheese, green peppercorns and Madeira wine.
Mousse de Saumon Fumé is smoked salmon mousse.
Pâté de Campagne is Country-style pork with champagne and whole black peppercorns.
Pâté de Canard Bigarade is coarse duck with bits of fresh orange and Grand Marnier liqueur.
Pâté de Canard au Cognac is a coarse duck with cognac and a piece of marinated duck breast in the center.
Pâté de Canard au Cognac en Croûte is coarse duck with cognac in a buttery pastry crust.
Pâté de Canard au Poivre Vert is finely ground, firm-textured duck with green peppercorns and kirsch.
Pâté de Chevreuil is coarse-textured venison, Burgundy wine and juniper berries.
Pâté de Foie Truffe au Cognac, country-style pork with Burgundy wine.
Pâté de Lapin aux Carottes en Croûte is rabbit with wine and bits of carrot in a buttery pastry crust.
Pâté de Lapin et Veau au Vin Blanc is coarse rabbit and veal with white wine.
Pâté de Poulet à l’Armagnac et Truffe is chicken liver mousse with Armagnac, rum and truffles.
Pâté de Poulet au Porto, chicken liver mousse with Port wine.
Pâté du Jardin is a vegetable pâté, colorful layers of spinach, cauliflower and carrots.
Pâté Faisan au Cognac is coarse pheasant with Cognac.
Pâté Forestier au Genièvre is coarse pork, chicken livers, fresh mushrooms, brandy and juniper berries.
Pâté Maison is country-style Pork with Burgundy wine.
Pâté Parisien is smooth pork with Madeira wine.
Pâté Paysan is medium-coarse pork and pork liver with Cognac.
Rillettes de Tours is a spicy loaf of minced pork and duck.

Serving Pâté

There are as many ways to serve pâté as there are creative chefs. Here are a few: you can send us your own favorite garnishes.

Capers, caperberries, cornichons
Cranberries, dates, figs, lingonberries
Caramelized onions
Gelled aspic, cut into small dice
Lightly dressed microgreens
Olives (especially with vegetable pâté)
Pink peppercorns
Toast points, garlic toasts
Toasted walnuts

An Education in French Sausage

Androuillettes, boudins, saucisse: the entire classic canon (or enough to meet anyone’s immediate needs) is available from Marcel et Henri. Many are fully-cooked, ready to heat-and-eat.

Andouillettes are pork chitterling sausages (these are French-style, not spicier Cajun-style)
Boudin Blanc. White sausage of pork, turkey breast, brandy and cream (fully cooked).
Boudin Noir. Pyrénées-style pork-based blood sausage (fully cooked).

Beautiful French sausages, for every taste and purpose.

Saucisson à l’Ail. Garlic salami (fully cooked).
Saucisse aux Fruits de Mer are scallops, shrimp, and pacific red snapper in a fully-cooked sausage flavored with vermouth.
Saucisse Basquaise is spicy, slightly hot Basque-style pork sausage
Saucisse Béarnaise is lightly garlicky, peppery pork sausage
Saucisse de Canard is duck sausage with green peppercorns
Saucisse Merguez d’Agneau is Spicy North African lamb sausage
Saucisse Merguez d’Agneau et Boeuf is spicy North African lamb and beef sausage
Saucisse Merguez de Boeuf is spicy North African beef sausage
Saucisse de Toulouse is Toulouse-style pork sausage with white wine
Saucisson à l’Ail aux Pistaches is fully cooked garlic salami with pistachios

Too many choices? Remember that each retailer may only carry a dozen or fewer items, but each will carry a different selection. Whenever you see a pâté or sausage by Marcel et Henri, you can bet that it’s worth trying! Don’t wait for a special occasion: bring some home and create one.