French Cretons

I love the picture with this recipe. The grandmother who loved to make this recipe, and send family members home with containers of it at the holidays. And her grandson smiling, next to her, when he was a young boy. There is an inset photo of the grandson today, all grown up, and he hails from Portland and has submitted this beloved family recipe. Thanks, Chad Conley!

Confession, I did not cook down a pork shoulder and a beef chuck roast. I took the short route and bought (unseasoned) ground pork and ground hamburg and mixed it together and cooked it in a fry pan, adding onions, (and garlic because everything is better with garlic, in my humble opinion) spices (I added ginger and nutmeg to the spices listed in the recipe), bread crumbs, (and milk to keep it moist while it cooked down).  I remember from my childhood that my mother used a meat grinder, but we do not have one, so purchasing ground meat was the way to go. I let it all simmer for a long time, covered, stirring now and then. I let it cool some, spooned it into the food processor (too heavy a substance for a blender) and pulsed it to a creamy texture. (Drizzle a very small amount of extra-virgin olive oil into the mixture as you pulse, to get desired texture, but don't overdo.) 

I filled little white ramekins with the mixture, covered with plastic wrap, and set in the fridge to chill. It needs to chill a long time, 4 hours or overnight. I also put some of the mixture in small plastic containers in the freezer. Serve room temp (we just warm it a little in the microwave). Serve with crackers or toasted baguette slices, red onion, and mustard (we like yellow and spicy brown/dijon). The Resident Archaeologist swears that an ice-cold Diet Coke is the perfect sweet beverage to wash it all down.

I was a little leery of a meat paste. It is completely outside of my food experience, til now. Trying the various recipes of this cookbook stretches me and introduces me to new foods. Honestly, I doubt my husband, who is an excellent cook, could have persuaded me to eat a meat paste. But with my commitment to cook and taste every recipe in this cookbook, I recognized that there was no getting around the fact that I had to try this. And I am so glad I did! My husband loves it and wants to add it to appetizers we offer when hosting a meal for friends and family (post-COVID, of course). This is a terrific recipe and I cannot recommend it highly enough.