Swiss Deli Fine Pate product reviews

I simply ADORE pate. It's one of the few food products one can make from 'internal organs' that I will gladly eat - at any time of the day or night, in fact. I have never been a fan of 'offal products' thanks to a rather annoyingly sadistic uncle when I was a kid. He used to take great delight from teasing and harassing the kids with the innards from any animals he had hunted, trapped or shot... kinda put me right off. But a good pate is always welcome on my table.

Traditionally, at least as far as my experience has shown, pate is basically a toast spread. Freshly toasted bread of almost any description, some butter (or margarine if you must), and a generous slather of pate is an acceptable starter to any decent French or Italian meal for me... but I rarely get a chance to buy it, so having a good sized chunk of quality pate, without blowing out my budget, was too good an opportunity to miss - I had to play!

Savoury scrolls - a new favourite in my house thanks to some ideas passed on to my by another reviewer - was an immediate option. So, a sheet of flaky puff pastry as a base, then some pate mixed 2:1 with softened butter to help improve it's spreadability (nothing worse than scrolls made from torn pastry!) was layered on first, followed by a good covering of finely-grated Colby cheddar cheese. A light sprinkle of cayenne papper to give it a little bite, and rolly-rolly time. Sliced, baked, and eaten in record time. Everyone in the family, even Little Lord Fussy-Eater, enjoyed their first one. By the end of #2 Mr6 had decided he was full, Mr14 just kept going (What is WITH teenagers and their hollow legs?!), and my wife and I managed to get 6 scrolls down before we called it quits.

Later in the week, I decided to try something else, and mixed some pate with some of the leftover finely-grated cheese, added a little dash of plain mayo and a pinch of finely-ground Himalayan pink rock salt. The resulting spread was first tried on crackers to great success and then spread down the groove of some freshly harvested celery. That was an awakening! Loved it, and it's going to form the base of a range of new foodie experiments for Summer.

Overall, this is a great pate. Not to everyone's tastes, for sure... but that's to be expected anyway. I did find the texture a little grainier than expected, but that didn't put me off at all. Actually, I found I quite liked it, gave the pate a bit of a rustic feel, in the same manner that real orange juice with pulp does. While it may strike some as a bit on the expensive side, it's not really. A fairly acceptable mass-produced pate can be found in supermarkets for around $3.50 per 100g pack, and this works out to be just $3.34 per 100g!

I hate the taste of pate but thought I would give this one a go and the fact it's made or prepared from liver still makes me feel sick. We sliced it open and I was a bit put off by the look of it. I dipped in my cracker, closed my eyes and took a big bite and chewed. It ACTUALLY isn't that bad. I am still trying to get used to the texture and consistency of it but I would buy it again and most definitely serve on crackers or hot toast (its pretty nice with avocado too). Flavour wise it reminds me of ham and chicken luncheon which neither is in it but makes it appealing to me :)

Package wise Swiss Deli have continued the classic, easy identifiable colours and symbols through out all there products and this is a rather smart marketing move. I often find myself looking for the black and gold in the supermarket and have been disappointed to find its not in all of them. I do wonder if they could have made the pate log longer but thinner or if in fact it is just the right size as it fits in my hand perfectly. The only downside is it needs to be kept chilled, so I can't buy it and hide it from my family.

I was lucky enough to try this Swiss Deli Pate. At first I was a bit apprehensive as I like to see the colour of meat products before eating so would probably not have bought this myself as it is in a gold wrapper (however I now know differently).

When opening this pate it was taken back as to how light this was. I am use to pate's with a bit more colour in them. However not to worry the taste was there. Yes it was lovely pate - however I felt that it was not that different from cheaper brands I have previously bought. It was very easy to spread and as stated was very fine. I did find however that it left a lingering grit in the mouth afterwards which I couldn't work out what this was.

I looked at the size of the roll and first thought that this is too much for me to eat all in one go so thought I would try freezing it and seeing what it was like out of the freezer. When taking it out of the freezer it had darkened in colour a little but defrosted really well and the taste had not changed at all.

The day after opening the roll, the pate had changed slightly in colour (just the exposed area) even though I had stored in an airtight container. I decided that I would then make toasted scrolls with it. Slice of bread, spread with a good layer of pate, roll the bread and cut into 3 pieces. Place on the oven tray and bake until crusty. These became a very popular afternoon treat for visitors. The heat had brought the flavour out a little more and suggestions were to add cheese to the scrolls as well.

So overall a very eatable pate. Now that I know that I can freeze the pate easily, the size of the roll would not put me off. My only concern would be what is causing the after taste grit feel, and maybe if I use it as a pate and cracker combination the grit might just get a bit too much for me. I also personally prefer packing for this type of things that I can pull out of the fridge and put on the table rather that putting on a plate.