French Style Pates

While we usually relate pate with duck or goose livers, the truth is pates can be created with pretty much anything – fish, pork, even just vegetables. Our selection of French-style pates include smooth terrines, chunky duck rillettes, and velvety smooth mousses. They’re made with natural, high-quality ingredients, following the traditional techniques of French chefs.

What is pate?

A terrine or pate is made with livers which have been usually ground or whipped, then mixed with duck fat or other ingredients like vegetables, spices, and a lot of the times a classic Armagnac cognac. There’s also pates in aspic, a type of gelatin that gives the pate its form. Savor our French-style pates in many different ways! We love them in the simplest of manners, like over a chunky fresh baguette, or perhaps served in fancy, old-school style over toast points. With pate, you usually want to slice instead of spread, so use a warmed knife – this helps you cut into it more easily and more tidily. Add a caper, perhaps a briny cornichon, maybe drizzled with a sweet preserve or fruit jam, a strong mustard from Dijon. Give Pate de Campagne a try, a country-style pate that’s usually chunkier, with larger pieces. Or discover Rillettes, an intense version of pate, made by cooking the pork slowly, very slowly, with a good amount of spices – perfect to serve over crackers for impromptu entertaining. If you’re looking for the glamourous end of pate, a pate de foie gras is exactly what you’re looking for, especially if you pick one of our pates with truffles, studded with pieces of fresh black French truffles – sublime! Whether smooth, velvety, coarse, chunky, mild or intense, at Gourmet Food Store we’ve got a pate that’s perfect for you. They’re ideal for easy, luxurious entertaining, and they make excellent gourmet gifts and additions to a French food gift basket.