pâté

Pâté ( , , ) is a forcemeat. Originally, the dish was cooked in a pastry case and called pâté en croute; in more recent times it is more usually cooked without pastry in a terrine, and called or simply . Various ingredients are used, which may include meat from pork, poultry, fish or beef; fat; vegetables; herbs; spices; wine; and brandy.

==History and etymology== Both the ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française and the Oxford English Dictionary'' (OED) date the term back to the 12th century. The former gives the original meaning as a "culinary preparation consisting of minced meat or fish surrounded by dough and baked in the oven"; the OED's definition is "a pie or pastry usually filled with finely minced meat, fish, vegetables, etc." The French words (pastry) and are both derived from the Latin meaning paste or dough (as is the English "pastry"). By the 19th century the pastry case was often dispensed with. According to Larousse Gastronomique, when there is a pastry case the dish is and when there is not, and the mixture is cooked in a dish (called a ), it is , often abbreviated to or , terms used interchangeably in both French and English usage. A patty is a similar dish, and its name comes from a 19th-century English corruption of the French word pâté.