Pork and Sweetbreads Terrine

Welcome to the world, my little piggy meatloaf! Friday, I broke in the Reynaud cookbook with the rustic pork and sweetbreads terrine and was very pleased with the results. Also useful were Ruhlman's notes on working with terrines in his book, Charcuterie.

I used roughly 1 lb of pork shoulder, 1/2 lb of sweetbreads, 1/4 pound of bacon, and slices of smoked ham. I soaked the sweetbreads in milk for 12 hours, then simmered them, demembraned, and sliced thin. Meanwhile, I chopped the pork, added shallots and garlic, mushed it all very well, then returned it to the fridge. Bacon lardons (which were mostly fat), cream, port, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme went in next. All was mushed again then back in the fridge. I lined the pan with plastic (ala Ruhlman), the country ham, then the pork with the sweetbreads in the middle.

Reynaud recommended 2 hours cooking time, but Ruhlman recommended cooking to temp -- which I did. I checked the temp at 90 minutes, it easily hit 150, and out we came.

I was a little surprised as the sheer amount of fat in this thing. It was *swimming* in it. But, not to panic. I used a wine box lid cut to fit and covered with tin foil as a press, topped with cans and a panini weight. The next morning, Voila! With a little assistance cutting it (thanks, John!), my loaf of porky goodness was a success.

Thanks to Ruhlman for his notes on spicing. He recommends being very aggressive with the salt and pepper and also fresh thyme, and this terrine was tasty -- anything but bland. And very garlicky smelling, but not overwhelmingly so when we ate it.