The Brotherhood of Fine Gourmets of Longny-au-Perche organized, Saturday October 5, the French championship for the best rabbit pâté and the best forest terrines for the year 2024.
Nicolas Lenormand, Grande-Rue butcher-delicatessen in Tinchebray-Bocage, competed as a professional, in the rabbit pâté category. He had already obtained the bronze medal in this same competition, in 2018. He persevered and here he was rewarded with the highest distinction: champion of France.
The main points of the recipe
Rabbit pâté can still be found in shops, In the past, everywhere in our countryside people raised rabbits, everyone made pâté. It’s ingrained. This is a product that may appeal more to people of a certain age than to young people.
the butcher likes to say.
Without revealing the secret in its preparation, the recipe deserves a presentation. The rabbit is already completely boned, by lifting the shoulders then following the spine, I remove all the meat. With practice it goes quickly
he explains.
Also read: In Tinchebray, the butcher Nicolas Lenormand’s watchword is quality within tradition.
The proportion is immutable: one third rabbit and two thirds pork. All this is chopped and mixed well rabbit meat being quite lean and dry, it must be enriched
. The eggs serve as a binder so that the pâté holds together, salt and pepper but not only that. Certainly aromatics, perhaps shallots, cognac or a Norman alcohol, we won’t know any more… There are always little secret elements in a preparation of this kind. Then there is controlling the cooking time.
Already the winner of an international grand prize for onion sausage in the spring, Nicolas Lenormand is done with competitions for this year. It’s time for the craftsman to look at the end-of-year holiday menu.
France
