Customer Reviews

Terrine

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I will premise this review by stating that I love Reynaud's first book. I also like the flavors and techniques in this book as well. However, if you do not have an understanding of food, many of these recipes will not work as is. I am a professional chef and one of my specialties is charcuterie. Many of the recipes, do not contain enough eggs in the recipes to allow them to properly set. I followed the recipes exactly to see if they would come out and at least five of the mousseline forcemeat based recipes and they did not set properly. I really wanted to love this book, but there are serious issues with the production formulas. My only explanation for this is that in Europe their cream is much denser and higher in fat than ours and the quality of eggs are higher and as such the recipes may be set for their products, not those found in the United States as our laws do not allow for the fat content allowed in European cream. So be forewarned that you will have to work with these cream based recipes when buying this book.

I love the rustic feel of M Reynaud's previous book (pink gingham anyone?). The pictures make me feel like a friend invited to a boucherie and his recipes are extraordinary. Along with the River Cottage Meat Book and the Fergus Henderson books, this counts as one of my favorite charcuterie books.

Terrine explores all types of terrines.. cheese, vegetable, meat, sweet.. The pictures are clean and beautiful and the recipes are brilliant. I've had the book for a little under a week and I've had the chance to cook several of the recipes with my restaurant staff. I am impressed once again with the simple and rustic look of some of the recipes and have been inspired by what M Reynaud is presenting.

I bought this book in conjunction with a Le Crueset Stoneware terrine as a Christmas present. The book arrived in excellent condition. I love the photographs and the recipes look simple and delicious. I love that it's an up-to-date reinvention of a classic technique.

RE page 132, the recipe for pain d'epice is a catastrophe. I can't believe this recipe was tested effectively. Evidently a batter chilled for 48 hours in a refrigerator and immediately upon withdrawal put into a baker's-paper-lined loaf pan and into an oven heated to 350-degrees F for an hour develops a scant inch-thick hard baked crust and remains liquid in the middle. This pain d'epice was the first thing I made from TERRINE, because of wondering RE a gingerbread with no ginger, no eggs, no butter, and no buttermilk to complement the bicarbonate of soda. It's an expensive recipe to fail--honey, lemon and orange zest, candied fruit, currants, three varieties of flour, two alcoholic elixirs, etc. After cutting into it (after it cooled, per instructions), the liquid--entirely uncooked-- centre flowed through the cooling rack all over the kitchen counter and was scraped up with a spatula and thrown out. After cleaning up, I cut the goo off some of the pretty-tough crust to 3/4" thick of cooked, and tasted it, and found it too sweet to enjoy with Roquefort and *butter*--and the picture doesn't show a crust--just the lightly-risen centre sandwiched between the Roquefort and butter mix. I can't believe that anyone has successfully followed this recipe out the window from start to finish in a test-kitchen and that it turned out okay for them. I found it unredeemably unworkable. I can see how it might be improved by the loaf pan being set in boiling water and cooked at 350 for two hours, etc. However, this recipe puts the rest of the book into doubt: I'm gun-shy about it, and, for example, yesterday evening compared veal pate in pastry (p. 102) with Julia Child's recipe for the same, because of not wishing to risk my veal stock, clarified with egg-white and subsequently frozen, in TERRINE's maybe dud recipe. And, of course, "falling apart" is a typical hazard of terrines, against which Julia gives sage advice absent here.

This book was a bust.
I know what gelatine leaf is as I once lived in Europe. I live in Berkeley California now, and you don't find gelatine leaf on the shelf here. Just how much granulated gelatine is a good substitute for "one leaf"? Other authors have spent the time and effort to have their recipes bridge the Atlantic, Stephane Reynaud did not.

Perhaps if Reynaud tested his recipes in the USA first before selling his book to readers here they would have a better chance of enjoying their labors.

As of Dec 13 2010

As a result of feedback I am updating the above review (originally posted Oct 2008). Comments on the availability of gelatin in its varied forms or the availability of conversion tables on the internet distracts from the point. Mentioning the gelatin was a mistake, as I was not clear, let me restate my disappointment with the lack of testing the recipes in the USA.

Focusing on information (or lack thereof) in the book, and, if the author and/or publisher did the hard work to rework the recipes for the USA market is what is important here. Sadly the results and the level of effort required for the buyer to make the recipes a success is disappointing.

If the you, the reader is seeking a sketchbook rather then blueprints on making Stephane Reynaud's terrine then buy the book, I suggest that you budget for disastrous results.

I bought this book just to have all of Reynauld's materials. I now have a couple of terrine pans and a frezer full of fantastic leftovers.

This book fills a real void in my extensive cookbook library. Just as I was researching recipes for the various delicious terrines I have tasted throughout France without success, Stephane Reynaud released this comprehensive cookbook on this subject. This is an excellent resource for those who love to entertain. I highly recommend this book.

Just last week, I made his chicken terrine and it was fabulous! Tonight I may make the fish terrine. I highly recommend this book.

One way to wow guests at one's next dinner party is with a lesser known by delicious dish - the terrine (so called because of the glazed earthenware baking dish in which it is cooked). "Terrine" takes a look at this French dish and inflects a simple and pure taste upon it, rare in this day of complex gourmet food. Covering vegetable, meat, cheese, and dessert terrines, "Terrine" is a top pick for any cookbook collection looking for something different, and for community libraries looking for a new addition.

great recipes, very creative, but he has an affliction towards cooking half the recipes with plastic wrap...hence bleeding poisons into his food. strange that he did not make the effort to figure out another way to do it.