How Do You Weight a Pâté or Terrine? Tips from DIY to Fancy

When I first came across instructions to press and weight a pâté, I wondered how I was going to do that. I’ve now tried enough do-it-yourself (DIY) options to know temporary solutions for pressing and weighting pâtés are a pain. I wanted to see what permanent options there are for weighting pâté en terrines, so I did a little research so I could share it with you in this helpful article.

How do you weight a pâté or terrine?

To press and weight a pâté—also known as a terrine—you put a flat barrier (the press) on top of the pâté and place weights on top of the press. Weight recommendations vary from one to four pounds. Most terrine molds do not come with a press. If you have a press-less terrine mold, DIY solutions include wrapped cardboard, cutting boards or wood and tin cans as weight. Fancier options include buying a terrine mold that comes with a press, using a spring-loaded terrine press and using another terrine as a press.

Now that you know the gist of how to weight a terrine, keep reading to discover more about each of these methods and why some of them are terrible! I’ll also explain why it’s a good idea to press and weight a pâté en terrine. But first, because this article is epic, I’ll share the outline of the content so you know what you’re getting into!

This article covers these subjects:

What does weighting a pâté en terrine do?
Why are there so many options for weighting a terrine?
Which terrine molds come with a press?
Do you still have to add weight if your terrine mold comes with a press?
How to weight your pâté en terrine: Four DIY options
How to weight your pâté en terrine: Two fancy options
Bonus question: Can I use an old-fashioned ham press for pâtés and terrines?

[By the way, if you want to know why it’s okay to use the terms pâté, terrine and paten en terrine interchangeably, have a look at my article, Are Pâtés & Terrines the Same? Mostly Yes: 10 Chefs Tell You Why.]

What does weighting a pâté en terrine do?

Weighting a pâté removes air bubbles, keeps the design of your interior garnish (or structured inlay) in place and gives your final product a uniform texture which is easy to slice.

In their book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman say, “As a pâté cools, it contracts. To help give it a uniform texture and shape as it does so, it’s best to put a weight on top.”

French cook, Pierre Franey, explains the heartache that can happen when you don’t press your terrine in his 1981 New York Times article, Kitchen Equipment; a Terrine for Pâté. He says, “When a pate is cooking something regrettable often happens to all that work: The pattern starts to break up as the pate expands, bubbles begin to form and the compactness of the pate is lost.”

[To read more about why it’s a good idea to weight your pâté en terrine (and who thinks it’s not a good idea), check out my article, Should You Press and Weight Your Pâté or Terrine?]

Why are there so many options for weighting a terrine?

The most confusing thing I’ve encountered since I got into making pâtés is this whole issue of press-less terrines. If you read my article about whether or not to weight a terrine, you’ll [SPOILER ALERT!] see that the consensus is yes, weighting terrines is a good idea, though not all types of terrines need to be weighted.

The most popular mold is the Le Creuset enamelled cast iron terrine mold. In their book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman call this terrine mold the “industry standard.”

And yet, it doesn’t come with a press. Neither does the Staub enamelled cast iron terrine mold. Or the Chasseur by Paderno enamelled cast iron terrine mold. Nor does the badly rated Lava enamelled cast iron terrine mold (note: the Lava mold is only partially enamelled; it’s got a non-stick coating (gasp!) inside).

All that to say, there are a lot of options for weighting your terrine because the industry standard cast iron terrine molds don’t come with a press.

This means that everyone who buys a cast iron terrine mold and uses recipes that call for pressing and weighting the terrine must come up with their own solution for this conundrum.

I’m not the only one who’s noticed this. It’s a decades-old problem (at least).

In his 1981 New York Times article, Kitchen Equipment; a Terrine for Pâté, French cook Pierre Franey says, “Another way of [weighting the pâté] is to buy a terrine with a lid that serves as the weight. In other words, it is a lid that will keep the pate compact even as it cooks. This is such a good idea that I am astonished so few terrines have been constructed with such a lid. The only one I know about is the two-quart earthenware design sold at the Bridge Kitchenware Company.” [I looked for the one Pierre described in his article in 1981 but I couldn’t find it at the Bridge Kitchenware Company.]

[If you haven’t purchased a terrine mold yet and you’re trying to decide which way to go, my article about this topic might help. Check it out here: 11 Tips for Buying or Procuring Your First Terrine Mold.]

Okay, now onto the big question…

Which terrine molds come with a press?

The terrine molds that come with a press are a few stoneware models. I’m putting the names of each of them and where I found them below. Usually I link to stuff but from doing multiple rounds of research on terrine molds, I know that availability changes within the stores themselves so it’s no use putting a short-term link here!

Le Creuset Heritage Stoneware Pâté Terrine with Press

By Le Creuset itself! This enamelled stoneware terrine is smaller and lighter than the enamelled cast iron terrine. The capacity is three quarters of a quart (whereas the cast iron version is 1.5 quarts). The dimensions are 8 x 5 x 5 inches (20.3 x 12.7 x 12.7 centimetres).

The press weighs six ounces and fits into the terrine nicely. It also has a finger-sized indentation on each of the long sides to help you remove the press easily. This is a great touch, I must say.

These terrines are made in Thailand and China. The Le Creuset enamelled cast iron terrine molds are made in France.

As I write this, I found the Le Creuset Heritage Stoneware Pâté Terrine with Press at Williams Sonoma. In previous searches, I’ve found it on Amazon but today it wasn’t on the US Amazon site. However, it was on the Canadian site, under the name of Le Creuset Heritage Stoneware 3/4-Quart Pate Terrine with Press. It comes in cherry red and cobalt blue.

Le Creuset Rectangular Terrine with Ceramic Press (Long British version!)

Well, this is interesting, but I think only if you live in the United Kingdom. There are two larger versions of the enamelled stoneware terrine. In my previous searches (of which there have been many!), I’ve never seen these versions before.

These larger versions are made in China and for sale on the Amazon UK website. I’ll include links (though I said I wouldn’t) because they seem to be regularly available. (For folks across the pond anyway; each product page screams to me, “This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location.”)

There are two options of this larger terrine and they’re distinguished by what seems to be the

interior length of the terrines (28- and 32-centimetres).

Measurements for the smaller version:

31.7 x 12.5 x 9.4 centimetres (12.5 x 4.9 x 3.7 inches).
2.2 kilograms (4.8 pounds).
Interior length: 28 centimetres.

Measurements for the larger version:

36 x 12 x 12 centimetres (14.2 x 4.7 x 4.7 inches).
2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds).
Interior length: 32 centimetres.

Here’s where you can get these ones on Amazon UK:

[These are not affiliate links, by the way.]

Emile Henry France Ovenware Terrine & Press, Large, Burgundy

This terrine mold is a bit longer than the Le Creuset stoneware mold but still on the smaller side; it’s 9.3 x 5.9 x 4.7 inches (23.6 x 14.9 x 11.9 centimetres) and 0.6 quarts. The terrine is made of enamelled clay and it’s made in the southern Burgundy region of France.

According to one Amazon reviewer, the press isn’t very heavy, but I couldn’t find out the weight of it. However, the press has an upright section in the middle of it which makes taking it out of the press easy. This is perhaps even more clever than the Le Creuset solution.

Today, I found this Emile Henry terrine on the Amazon, Kmart (!) and Emile Henry USA sites but not in the Emile Henry online catalogue.

Revol 641229 Terrine Dish with Lid + Press Porcelain

This is an enamelled porcelain terrine with a capacity of 0.6 litres. It’s also on the small side at 6.7 x 4.7 x 3.9 inches (17 x 12 x 10 centimetres). I couldn’t tell where it’s made though one site said it’s imported from the UK.

Like the Le Creuset model, the Revel terrine press has one indentation on each of the long edges of the press. However, unlike the Le Creuset model, the indentations aren’t big; they’re certainly not finger sized, meaning they won’t be any help when it’s time to remove the press.

Amazon UK reviewer, RF, says in his review called THE PROBLEM LID, “I looked forward to receiving this terrine dish with lid and press but was extremely disappointed with the lid and the press when it arrived. Not much thought went into engineering the lid handle or the press, the lid knop almost always slips out of your hand when you pick it up and the risk of breaking the lid is very real. The press is not easy to get out once it is in the dish, the easiest way is to prize it up with a knife.”

Alas, this whole section on the Revol terrine might not matter. During my research, it wasn’t available on Amazon, on the Canadian version of the DesertCart website (which is a company in the United Arab Emirates) or FishPond (which seems to serve the folks in Singapore).

[Fun fact: Because of that Amazon review, I learned that a knop is “a small knob or similar rounded protuberance, especially for ornament.” Source: Dictionary.com]

Saveur et Degustation Foie Gras Terrine with Press

This terrine is enamelled ceramic. The body and press are white, and you can choose between a red lid or a grey one. This one is a decent size if you look at the measurements on the product pages (described as both 10 x 4.3 x 10.6 inches and 25.5 x 11 x 11.8 cm on the American page which doesn’t add up).

However, if you look at the pictures, the press has measurements demarcated in centimeters that only go to 16 centimeters. One of the French reviews on Amazon mentions that the dimensions are wrong, and another French reviewer says the real interior dimensions are

17.5 x 8.5 x 7 centimetres (height).

The press is designed like the Le Crueset press with indentations along each side that are big enough for fingers. So that’s good. Plus, it has centimeter measurements printed on it (in grey or red, to match the lid) in case you need that functionality.

There’s no indication where this terrine and press are made.

Okay, those are all the terrine molds with lids I could find. As I find more, I’ll add them here. Now let’s get onto the weight question!

Do you still have to add weight if your terrine mold comes with a press?

Yes, you still have to add weight even if you’re terrine mold comes with a press. Let me explain why.

From the terrines mentioned above, only one mentioned the weight of the press. The press for the small version of the Le Creuset stoneware terrine weighs 6 ounces (170 grams). Let’s guestimate that the press for the two full-sized Le Creuset stoneware terrines weighs 12 ounces which is approximately three-quarters of a pound (340 grams). We’ll also guess that the presses for the other terrines weigh about the same as these ones.

But less than a pound is still light, according to multiple chefs who know the domain of pâtés and terrines.

Folks who recommend using two pounds (about one kilogram) to weight your pâté:

Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman in their excellent book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie.
The Culinary Institute of America in their epic guide for chefs, Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen, Fourth Edition.
Anne Willan in her 1981 book, French Regional Cooking.

Folks who recommend going heavier than two pounds to weight your pâté:

Julia Child – In her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The 40th Anniversary Edition, Julia recommends weighting your pâté with three to four pounds (1.36 to 1.81 kilograms).
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – In his article Press to impress: Terrine, potted meat and confit, Hugh says to use, “A brick … or some heavy food tins.” And, according to the What Things Weigh article, Weight Of Brick, “A standard size brick … weighs 4.5 pounds (2.04 kg).”

On the other hand, Jane Grigson, in her 1967 book, Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery, takes a more easygoing approach. She says to “weight it gently.” The drawing accompanying this instruction shows a few tins of food on top of the cooked pâté.

Of course, if you’re using one of those half-sized terrines, perhaps you only need one pound to weigh down your pâté. Which still leaves you short if your press weighs six ounces.

All this makes me wonder why presses aren’t heavier…

Anyhoo, let’s finally get to how to weight your pâté if you use a press-less terrine.

How to weight your pâté en terrine: DIY options

There are a bunch of do-it-yourself ways to weight your terrine and I’ll order them from worst to best.

DIY option #1 for weighting your terrine: Plastic wrap/tin foil plus heavy things (this one’s the worst!)

Seriously, don’t do this one! But if you really can’t find the two minutes to do the next option, fine.

In this case, all you have to do is cover your pâté en terrine with a couple layers of plastic wrap or tin foil and find some other things around the kitchen that will fit on top. Ideally, what you put on top fits the inner dimensions of the terrine. In that case—like if you have a smaller loaf pan that fits perfectly on top of your terrine—this isn’t a bad idea at all.

But it’s unlikely that you’ll have two pounds of things that will fit nicely inside your terrine. Instead, you’ll lay a mustard jar on its side and have a weird amount of unweighted area on the other end. Or you’ll use cans of tuna or soup and you’ll get tuna-can/soup-can grooves in your pâté. This doesn’t affect the taste obviously, but it affects the presentation. And why sabotage the presentation when you’ve gone to all the trouble of making a delicious pâté?

DIY option #2 for weighting your terrine: Cardboard covered in plastic wrap or tin foil plus tin cans

In this scenario, you find a cardboard box and cut out a piece of cardboard to the inner dimensions of your terrine mold. If you’re a careful type, you’ll measure the inside dimensions exactly of your terrine mold. Then you wrap it up in a few layers of plastic wrap or tin foil so the dirty cardboard box that’s been who-knows-where isn’t touching your food.

If you’re not too careful about your measurements, you’ll get a cardboard press that fits close enough. You can trim off any un-pressed edges later, if you want.

Once your cardboard press is ready (and your pâté is cool enough to handle), you can put it on top of your pâté en terrine and add two to four pounds of weight across it.

The cardboard layer will help distribute the weight across the pâté so you’re less likely to get soup can indentations in your pâté. As you can see from the picture below, I used canned fish and mustard as weights.

In my experience, this cardboard press is a disposable solution. As it sits on top of the pâté, some grease (but hopefully not too much) seeps out of the pâté and even if you wrap the cardboard well, the grease seeps into it. In the picture below, you can see the dark spots on the cardboard from my greasy pâté. This was the Chicken Liver Terrine recipe from Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, the awesome book by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman.

The one-time cardboard terrine press solution

DIY option #3 for weighting your terrine: Plastic cutting board cut to size plus tin cans

This is where you take a thick, plastic cutting board—that’s also dishwasher safe—and somehow saw it into the exact inner dimensions of your terrine mold. After that, you can add some weight on top. The beauty of this solution is it should last forever, and you can throw the press in the dishwasher or sink for easy cleaning. The downside is you throw away the unused pieces of cutting board. Which might be an argument for making multiple presses from that one cutting board.

I got this idea from somewhere on Reddit months ago and I’m just sorry I didn’t jot down the reference as it was an enjoyable story. The person telling the story was a sous-chef and this was one of the dirty jobs his chef assigned him. I don’t recall how he actually cut the cutting boards (or if the story included this detail).

If you decide to do this, be smart so you don’t cut anything except the cutting board.

In his article, How To: Cut Plastic, famous handyman Bob Vila says that you can cut acrylic or polycarbonate plastic up to 1/8 inch thick with a utility knife (also known as box cutters). For plastic thicker than 1/8 inch, he suggests using a table saw or circular saw with a “no melt” blade.

About safety, Bob says, “Always take the proper precautions when cutting plastic. Secure the sheet of plastic to your workstation with a vice to ensure it won’t shift during cutting, and wear safety glasses to protect your eyes from stray pieces of acrylic or polycarbonate. Call a professional if you don’t feel comfortable taking on the project yourself, or if you don’t have the proper tools for the job.”

I’m guessing if your thick plastic cutting board was properly secured, you could also use a handsaw. For lower-tech options, the WikiHow article, How to Cut Thick Plastic, suggests using a fine-toothed saw or a jigsaw (a jigsaw is an electric, hand-held saw). They also suggest drilling holes across the cutting line to make the process easier. They say, “It’s often tough to cut directly through thick plastic, even with a saw or a sharp knife. If you drill out a series of small holes in the plastic you’re planning to remove, you’ll have an easier time cutting the plastic.”

Remember that plastic is light so when you use it to weight your pâté, you’ll still need a bit more weight on top. The good news is you won’t have to worry about an uneven surface on your pâté like you would with the first two options.

DIY option #4 for weighting your terrine: Nice piece of wood cut to size plus tin cans

Making a wood terrine press is much the same as the plastic cutting board option but I’m guessing it’s easier to do with hand tools, if that’s all you’ve got access to. Most wood is naturally “food safe” but avoid using wood that’s treated with any chemicals, of course. Also, don’t use hemlock which is poisonous.

As for treating the wood, here’s what woodturner, Dave Somers, says on the Sawmill Creek Woodworking Community forum, “A guideline we tend to follow in wood turning is that if the item is for food use … we prefer to use an oil type finish. A stabilized walnut oil, or Danish Oil, or a Tung oil variant like Waterlox. Those soak into the wood and cure in the wood itself from exposure to oxygen. This is opposed to a shell style finish like Shellac and Polyurethane and varnish. Those surface shells develop micro cracks over time and food and water gets lodged in there. Once that happens you get staining occurring under the shell which doesn’t look good at all, and is impossible for the user to get out without removing and reapply the finish. An oil finish can safely be cleaned with soap and water in a sink and receive a good scrubbing if needed without worry about damaging a more delicate shell finish.”

Even a hardwood press probably won’t weigh two pounds, so you’ll still need a few cans (or whatever) to press it properly.

To press, you can put a piece of plastic wrap or tin foil on top of the pâté and put the wood press on top or you can put the wood directly on the pâté. If you put the wood directly on the pâté, it’ll absorb some of the fat from the pâté, which is probably fine. I’m basing this assessment on my cutting boards. As I ate more greasy meat, my cutting boards became pleasantly seasoned from the animal fat. [Poor things were so dry when I was a vegetarian, ha ha.]

When it comes to weighting pâtés, my goal is to move from option #2 to option #4. I have an aunt who likes projects and I’m hoping we can do this one together (she made me a cutting board before, so this is basically the same thing on a smaller scale).

Okay, that’s about all the DIY solutions I’ve come across so let’s move onto the fancier options.

By the way, if you’ve seen any other DIY options for pressing and weighting a terrine, please let me know and I’ll update this article.

How to weight your pâté en terrine: Fancy options

One of these fancy options for pressing and weighting your pâté require no jury-rigging. Instead, it require dollar bills. One of these options requires dollar bills and jury-rigging. Let’s take a look at the two best options I found, starting with the one that still needs that DIY flair.

Fancy option #1 for weighting your terrine: Spring-loaded terrine press

A spring-loaded terrine press lets you apply five kilograms of even pressure across your terrine, according to the product page at Meilleur du Chef. But look at the picture of this product and you’ll see that though it’s called a terrine press, you still need your own press!

Plus, the press must be firm like you’d get with the stoneware presses or the ones you make yourself out of wood or a hard, plastic cutting board. The firmness of the pressing plate allows the spring-loaded terrine press to apply the pressure evenly across the whole pâté.

The one on the Meilleur du Chef site is the heftiest version I saw (there aren’t too many) and you can even press two pâtés at a time with this one press (if they’re stacked).

As I write this, this spring-loaded terrine press is 63 €/$100 CAD.

Fancy option #2 for weighting your terrine: Using a second (and identical) terrine mold

On the Chef Steps site, in their article, Million-Dollar Country Pâté: A Simple Recipe That Looks (and Tastes!) Like a Million Bucks, they say, “Now, if you have extra terrine molds, you can use them to press your pâté.” This one sentence (and the picture of the greasy bottom of a second Le Creuset enamelled cast iron terrine) mold blew my mind.

Then I thought, why didn’t I think of that?

So, we know this works with the industry standard Le Creuset enamelled cast iron terrine mold but that doesn’t mean it works with all terrine molds. If the outside bottom of the terrine mold is bigger than the inside top of the terrine mold, it won’t fit inside. Buyer beware.

The downsides using a second terrine mold to weight your pâté:

Your terrine press (the second terrine mold) is expensive. For example, I spent $250 on the Le Creuset enamelled cast iron terrine mold. Am I going to buy another one to use as a press? I think not.
If you have two terrine molds that fit together enough so that one can be used to press and weight your pâté, you can only cook one pâté at a time (so why have two molds?). Or you must commit to cooking two pâtés at time, but only if you use two recipes—one that needs weighting and one that doesn’t. Trouble!

[By the way, to get the reasoning behind why I chose the Le Creuset enamelled cast iron terrine mold, check out my resource page called The Best Terrine Mold for a Lifetime of Fine Terrine Making (Even if You Drop It).]

Bonus question: Can I use an old-fashioned ham press for pâtés and terrines?

As I was researching terrine presses, I found a bunch of ads for retro meat presses for sale. These are basically rectangular, aluminum terrines with a press attached to springs and the top part fastens onto the sides of the press.

These old meat presses were called:

Meat ham press.
Vintage large aluminum ham press.
Vintage alloy metal meat press.
Adelmann #3 catering butcher professional meat ham press mould brawn terrine (yes, really).

If you find one of these, yes, you can use it to cook and press your pâté en terrine! If you don’t like the idea of cooking in aluminum, this antique solution isn’t for you.

You can see one of these old terrine molds in action on Kate’s Cooks Champions Challenge blog in her article, Simple country terrine. Her terrine and press is a family heirloom for sure.

Conclusion

Holy moly! There was more to say about weighting a pâté en terrine than I thought! I hope this helps you decide on the right weighting option for you. And may all your pâtés be uniform in texture, appearance and design because of perfect pressing and weighting!

Forcemeat Academy