A pâté de campagne is a traditional country terrine, a rustic preparation, slightly more refined than a pâté grandmère mainly in that it uses only a small amount of liver. In a pâté campagne liver is used as a seasoning device rather than a dominant flavor. In the past I have always used a recipe for a more or less traditional styled pâté de campagne from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Thier recipe is made up of ground pork and chicken or pork liver, but I wanted to try to make a variation that offered a richer flavor profile - with a game like character, and this recipe made a successful step in that direction.

The mushrooms bring out the earthiness in the duck and lamb. Morels would be a wonderful alternative to the porcini's I used in this recipe, but I couldn't find any this weekend. In either case I prefer to used dried mushrooms, the grind breaks them into the perfect size and I find that their flavor permeates the pâté in a way that fresh mushrooms don't offer.

The duck and duck fat brought a much finer texture to the pâté that I found to be very appealing as well as creating a earthier and more robust character. The liver flavor in this recipe wasn't as strong as it might have been, If you enjoy a strong liver flavor in your pâté you might consider adding an additional 50 to 100 grams of duck liver. The stronger flavored meats in this pâté make the liver a bit more background than in a pâté made with pork (especially commercially produced domestic pork in the US - which I find to be a bit less flavorful than heirloom pork like berkshire, which is far preferable for this kind of preparation).