Forcemeat Academy: The Mission
The mission at Forcemeat Academy is to help regular, meat-loving cooks discover and explore the world of forcemeat and French country cooking. Yum!
The story behind Forcemeat Academy
Hi, I’m Andrea Bassett, the lady and amateur cook behind Forcemeat Academy.
For almost four decades, I didn’t even know what forcemeat was. I didn’t know pâtés are forcemeat. And, even if I had known, I wouldn’t have cared since I was firmly in the “liver tastes disgusting” camp.
This makes sense if you look at my history with food. [Keep reading to look at it!]
Food evolution
My dad was a meat and potatoes guy. My mom treated me to Hungarian goulash on my birthday, but meals were pretty simple most other days. Then, when I was in university, I went vegetarian (and even dabbled in veganism for about a year), when it was a lot more difficult than it is now.
The veggie twenties
So, when I became responsible for feeding myself, I was vegetarian. I became a pretty good home cook because I never used a light touch with the olive oil (even back then, I was Mrs. Jack Sprat).
That stint as a vegetarian lasted 11 years and the closest I ever got to forcemeat was the summer I lived in Montreal and ate a copious amount of veggie cretons. Cretons are a famous Québécois pork spread and I can’t even imagine now what the veggie ones were made of, but I thought they were the best thing ever. So close to discovering forcemeat, and yet so far.
The more-meaty thirties
When I went back to meat in my early thirties, I still ate a lot of veggies and my cooking creativity went there, rather than to discovering new ways to cook meats. I knew how to add ground beef to spaghetti sauce and had an awesome meatloaf recipe (thank you Northern Exposure cookbook) so what else did I need?
Another decade went by. I got a little closer to forcemeat when I ate pâté a couple of times, but it never quite dazzled me. Instead I got dazzled by beef tongue.
The way-more-meaty forties
Then, in my forties, the pendulum swung to the other side. I dropped plant foods and focused on eating foods from the animal kingdom only: meat, dairy, eggs. The only plants I ate were for seasoning: spices, hot sauce, lemon juice and decaf coffee.
This way of eating mostly agreed with me but after about a year, I felt like something was missing. Amazingly, it wasn’t chocolate or any sweets because I lost all cravings for them. I wasn’t dissatisfied with the food I was eating because it was delicious every single meal.
But there was something not quite right.
The Eureka moment
I didn’t know what this feeling was about until I literally had a Eureka moment at the butcher shop.
My neighbour—who is also my friend—and I went to the market one day. We went into our local butcher shop but my freezer was full from our farmers at Grassroots Beef so I didn’t need anything.
My friend went to the counter for her skinless chicken breasts. I just couldn’t watch this low-fat activity, so I wandered to the other side of the shop.
To the charcuterie counter. Which I had seen hundreds of times before.
But on that day, my eyes wandered further right. To the display of pâtés in crusts, rillettes (what the heck?) and chicken liver mousse.
This is when the Eureka happened.
While looking at those pâtés in their terrines, a message ran right through me. It screamed, “THIS! This is what you can pour your cooking creativity into!”
In that moment, I went from not knowing what the problem was to being clear on the solution. That’s how the Forcemeat Academy was conceived in Sanagan’s Meat Locker in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Since then, I’ve been learning about the world of forcemeat and making simple recipes. I love it! I’m no expert but that doesn’t matter because I don’t have to be. I’m a student, I’m learning, and you know what? I got my mojo back in the kitchen!
You don’t have to be a food expert to discover and enjoy forcemeat dishes like pâtés, terrines, mousselines, sausages, stuffing, meatballs, meatloaf, galantines and quenelles. And you won’t want to stop there. I also branch into the world of charcuterie and French country cooking that includes fatty delights like rillettes, confit, rillons, smoked meats, etc. [Perhaps this site should be called charcuterie academy but … so many syllables!]
To enjoy all this, you need is curiosity, fatback and the willingness to try something new in the kitchen.
The more-meaty forties continued
After 3.5 years of only animal foods, the food pendulum swung back a little. I still eat a mostly animal-foods based diet, with some other whole foods added in for crunch, variety and to absorb butter. (I no longer pick the olives out of my terrines, ha ha.)
Thanks for exploring this world of meaty deliciousness with me. I hope it invigorates your kitchen mojo too!
About Andrea Bassett, outside of the Forcemeat Academy
Here are a few things about me, unrelated to my interest in meat emulsions:
- I’m an executive ghostwriter by day—and because I work from my home office—my work uniform includes slippers and a down hoodie for those chilly times..
- My hobbies are drinking coffee, wearing novelty t-shirts seven days a week and reading cook books and tear-jerking business books.
- To wind down after a long day of ghostwriting, I like to flop onto the couch and watch a movie. My husband says my super-power is enjoying all movies, even the bad ones. Except these days, I’m learning Spanish via comprehensible input, so my movie time is now Spanish video/TV/movie time.
- I’ve lifted weights inconsistently for several years and my goal this year is to break my current record of 13 weeks without missed sessions. And shred the legs of my pants with epic power thighs. (This is a slow work in progress.)
How to get in touch with me
I haven’t yet set up an email for myself or a newsletter for you.
Until I get that done, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and drop me a message there. I’m all about ghostwriting on LinkedIn but here’s the link anyway: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreabassett/
Thanks for reading …
Now get outta here and start reading more about forcemeat! I’d recommend starting with the article I wrote to help people avoid the heartache of grainy pâté. (Ask me how I know about this heartache…)
