Recipe - Lou Pastis En Pott (Potted Meat)

One half pound Lard
2 pound Lean beef
2 pound Lean pork
3 Bay leaves
A few sprigs of thyme and
rosemary
1 teaspoon Juniper berries
Salt and pepper
One half Bottle red wine (the
nearblack wine of Cabors
or a

This is an unusual potted meat prepared only in the Languedoc.

Serves 8 10

Time: Start at least 2 weeks ahead; 30 minutes plus 2 hours cooking,
repeated 3 times

First cooking: deep red Medoc)

Second and third cooking: the same ingredients again each time

You will need a large straightsided earthenware pot. Scald the earthenware
pot and grease it thoroughly with a little of the lard (you can line the
bottom with a few fig or walnut leaves if you have them). Cut the beef and
pork into slices, trimming the gristle and sinews as you do so. Put the bay
leaves on the bottom of the pot. Lay in the meat slices, zseasoning with
the herbs, salt, and freshly ground pepper as you do so. Pour in the wine
it should just cover the meat.

Simmer the pot uncovered over a very low heat or in a preheated 250 F oven,
for 1 One half to 2 hours, until the volume is reduced by half. Allow to cool.
Seal with a layer of lard, melted and poured over the cool meat. Cover with
wax paper tied down with string. Leave the pot on a refrigerator shelf for
a week. Then remove the lard seal and add in another 2 lbs pork and 2 lbs
beef, the whole covered with wine, seasoned and cooked as before. Repeat
the operation at the end of another week. You will now have a delicious
dark jelly meat which you can either eat hot or cold. If you continue to
replace the volume you have removed, the pot can go on forever.

From: THE OLD WORLD KITCHEN THE RICH TRADITION OF EUROPEAN PEASANT
COOKING" by Elisabeth Luard, ISBN 0553052195 Posted by: Karin Brewer,
Cooking Echo, 7/92

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini