Muttonbird Pâté

1 large onion, fine chopped
2 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, fine chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp salt
½ tsp SIDS CRAZY SALT
1 tsp black peppercorns
½ tsp whole allspice
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
2 Bay leaf
½ cup of cream
2 eggs
3 tbsp brandy
2 Mutton Birds, flesh, skin & fat - minced
500 g pork mince
400 g bacon slices, no rind.

Sauté onion in butter in a large fry pan until soft, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and thyme then cook, stirring, 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl set in a bowl of ice.
Roast the muttonbird the same way as chicken. Cool then remove bones.
Meanwhile, blitz salt, peppercorns, SIDS CRAZY SALT, allspice, nutmeg and bay leaf in grinder until finely ground. Add to onion mixture and whisk in cream, eggs and brandy until combined well.
Blitz Mutton Bird meat, fat and skin in a food processor until finely chopped, then add to onion mixture along with pork mince and mix together well with your hands or a wooden spoon. Line bottom and long sides of the meat loaf dish crosswise with about 6-9 strips of bacon, arranging them close together (but not overlapping) and leaving an overhang of around 10 cm. Fill meat loaf dish evenly with ground-meat mixture. Cover top of pâté lengthwise with 2-3 more bacon slices to cover completely and fold overhanging ends of bacon back over these. Cover pâté with plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours to marinate meats.
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 180°C. Discard plastic wrap and cover pate tightly with a double layer of foil, then bake pâté in a water bath for around 2 hours, until thermometer inserted diagonally through foil at least 10 cm into centre of the pâté registers 90°C. Remove foil and let pâté stand on a rack for 30 minutes.
Chill pâté in the meat loaf dish for at least at least 24 hours to allow flavours to develop.
Place pâté in a bowl and serve with crackers. Even people who don’t like Mutton Birds love this pâté!