If you want a great terrine and you have plenty of time to prepare it, you can take ages chopping, mincing, de-boning and slicing – fine. If, on the other hand, you want a great terrine without the aggravation of all that prep, you can do a lot worse than cheating with some bacon, some mince, and a pack of “posh” sausages. This takes about 10 minutes to prepare. You will need:

• A 1 kilo Loaf Tin
• A roasting tray, to make a Bain Marie
• 500g of Lean Mince of your choice (lamb, pork, or veal are my favourites for terrines)
• Half a dozen, or 500g, ready-made “posh” sausages (Pork & Leek are really good for this, so are Sweet Chilli, depends on what your supplier offers)
• Enough Streaky Bacon to line your Loaf Tin

Heat your oven to Gas 4.

Use the Bacon to line the Loaf Tin, keeping a couple of rashers back to cover the top of the Terrine. Squash half of the Mince into the Loaf Tin, pushing it down well  to make the first layer of the Terrine. Remove the skins from the Sausages and squash their meat into the Loaf Tin on top of the first layer of Mince. Finally, squash the remaining Mince into the Loaf Tin and lay the Bacon rashers you kept back over the top to cover. Cover the top of the Terrine with tinfoil.

Stand the Loaf Tin in the Baking Tray. Boil some water and pour it into the Baking Tray so that it comes about halfway up the Terrine Tin. Cook for half an hour then turn the oven down to Gas 2 and leave to cook for an hour while you do something more interesting.

Test that the Terrine is cooked by sticking a skewer into the centre (if it comes out clean, it’s cooked). When it’s done your terrine may have risen a bit. If so, leave the terrine in the tin, put the tinfoil cover back on and place a heavy object on top of it to compress it (I leave my Loaf Tin in the Baking Tray during this time, as you can get some leakage). Leave it until it is completely cold before turning it out of the tin to serve.