This post is about setting terrines with agar instead of the traditional gelatin mixture like aspic.

One thing that irritates me about the classic texts on garde manger is that none of them sufficiently generalize and theorize the concept of a terrine.

For instance, most of them provide the following two categories of terrine:

• Pâté en Terrine – Made by pressing raw forcemeat into a dish and baking or steaming. The terrine is set by the protein network of the forcemeat.
• Aspic-Bound Terrines – Made by combining cooked-and-chilled products with warm aspic or other gelatin-rich liquid, packing them into a dish, and chilling. The terrine set set by the cold gelatin.

There are a few outliers that don’t conform to either of these categories (notably foie gras terrine), but in terms of broad classification this is what is provided in most texts. And I’ll mention that there are totally different categories that should be included (for instance, fat-bound terrines like rillette en terrine).

While aspic is the most classical binding agent for that style of terrine, we can actually use almost any gelling agent. This is what I mean by not sufficiently generalizing. If we instead called this class “Gel-Bound Terrines” it would open the mind to using any number of hydrocolloids.

My staring point in experimenting with alternative gelling agents was agar agar. Every so often I have a vegetarian student in Garde Manger. My outcomes are very meat-focussed, and while we often make vegetable terrines, when they are set with gelatin, the final product isn’t actually vegetarian. If we can use agar, the student can make a final product they can actually taste!

How to Set a Terrine with Agar

Formula for Agar Gel

• 100% flavourful liquid (the terrine pictured above used tomato juice)
• 1.0% agar
• 0.1% locust bean gum (this is optional but is said to improve the texture of the final gel, making it less brittle and more similar to gelatin)

Whisk together cold liquid, agar, and locust bean gum in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes to fully hydrate agar.

Procedure, Temperature Control

The principle difference in working with agar instead of gelatin is that we have to work in a different, much higher, temperature range.

For gelatin terrines we have cool-to-warm featured ingredients, and warm aspic or gelatin mixture (roughly 40°C). We combine these in the terrine and then refrigerate. The gelatin starts to set around 15°C, and is fully set at the final fridge temperature 4°C.

While gelatin sets at 15°C, agar sets closer to 40°C, which means that we need to be working above this temperature while filling the terrine (also, we have to move fast!)

Suggested Procedure

• Don a double pair of nitrile gloves to protect your hands.
• Heat all of the solid terrine components in a 225°F oven.
• Melt pre-made agar gel in a pot, then bring to a boil.
• Ensure all mise en place is complete, then, working quickly, remove solid components from oven and assemble terrine.

Opportunity to Serve Terrines Hot? Since gelatin melts around 40°C, all of our gelatin-bound terrines need to be served cold. However agar doesn’t melt until 85°C, which means after setting our terrines, we should be able to heat them and serve them hot. I haven’t tried this yet, but it’s an interesting possibility. There are a couple of agar-set, savoury “panna cotta” featured in the first Eleven Madison Park cookbook.