Pate De Campagne - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1/2 lb ham (a slice of boiled ham about 1/4-inch thick)
1/2 lb salt pork
1 shallot, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon thyme, fresh (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
2 tablespoons madeira wine
2 tablespoons cognac
2 lbs ground pork, lean
1/2 lb ground veal
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
8 slices bacon (or enough to line and cover pate mold(s)

Preparation

Cut ham slice into 1/4\" strips. Cut the salt pork into1/8\" slices and the slices into 1/8\" strips.
Put the shallot, bay leaf, thyme, Madeira and Cognac into a flat dish. (I use a pyrex square glass dish). Add the meat strips, cover and marinate 6 hours or overnight.
Mix veal and pork and salt and pepper and refrigerate until ready to use.
When ready to make pate, line a 4-cup mold (or 2 small molds) with bacon slices. Drain the liquid from the meat strips into the ground meat and mix (this is the sausage). Place a layer of sausage into the bacon-lined mold, then a layer of eat strips. Continue until all is used, ending with the sausage.
Cover the top of the mold with strips of bacon cut to fit. Press down firmly into the mold. Cover tightly with foil, and set mold(s) into a water bath. Bake at 325 degrees F. for two hours.
When done, remove from oven and place mold(s) in pan large enough to hold it and any overflow of fat. Weight down the top of the mold, using a foil wrapped brick or the like. Make sure the pate is pressed while still warm. When cool. refrigerate with the weight.
When the pate is cold, turn it out of the mold(s), scrape away the congealed fat. A good French cook will save that fat to cook with--fries for example--it tastes great.
Serve with cornichons and mustard and crusty bread.