What can I eat from this menu?

[FaintlyMacabre]

I am trying to choose a starter from the Christmas menu at our pub. They have:
Stilton and walnut soup
Gravadlax
Potted pheasant.

So, the pheasant is basically pate, which is out. I've done a quick google for gravadlax, and while smoked salmon seems ok, the gravadalx is made in a different way which rules it out.
That leaves the stilton soup- I'm presuming that as it's cooked it should be alright?

It all sounds so delicious and I'm not allowed any!

I'd probably go for Gravadlax (in blissful ignorance without googling ) but if not, the stilton will be cooked so shouldn't be a problem

potted pheasant is not pate! it's just the breast meat pounded up. pate is made from livers so is an entirly different dish.

go for the pheasant, yummmmmmmy.

You can eat potted pheasant - there is no liver in it, it's not a pate. Take it from me, it's safe (I'm a chef)

And technically smoked salmon is only "safe" if it's hot smoked, not cold smoked. Cold smoked salmon is raw, as is gravlax - however gravlax is cured with so much salt that it will have killed off any bugs as salt is a natural preservative/steriliser

Stilton soup will be fine, it's well cooked so will not be a Listeria risk

Gravadlax - would also be fine so much salt in it

Potted pheasant - unless it's made of the liver will also be fine

I thought the reason pregnant people can't eat pate isn't because of the liver - there are lots which don't have liver in them, but because of the listeria risk - pate is more likely to give you food poisoning i think. So potted pheasant may or may not be ok - in a restaurant we're all trusting that they have cooked things well and not left them lying about.

I'd have the soup, or maybe the pheasant, or the gravadlax and not worry too much . irecently went to a wedding where the canapes were either prawn, crab or liver pate. That was a pretty miserable time!

Ooh, thank you everyone! This is encouraging . Now I have to choose what to have. More dilemmas...

but woowa, both crab and prawns are fine in pg...

Now tell us what the next course is - not to advise you but just because I'm drooling

have not read all posts but pate is unsafe becuase of raw egg- so even veggie pate is out of bounds.

off to eat some cooked stilton now!

[sigh}

pate doesn't contain raw egg

go and read the guidelines at eatwell.gov.uk

Pate doesn't contain raw egg, but on the eatwell.gov.uk website, it says to avoid all pate because of the listeria risk:

Pâté
Avoid all types of pâté, including vegetable. This is because pate can contain listeria.

can eat prawns and crab? I thought shellfish was out? Though I have since eaten prawns. Life too short.

I've made pate, never put raw egg in!

raw shellfish is out, so no fresh oysters, but anything cooked is fine

Guidelines here

Kitkat, please don't give nutritional advice that is totally wrong. This is how wrong information gets around.

No pate has uncooked egg as all pates are cooked. Vegetarian pate is the only pate that is deemed "safe" in pregnancy.

Having spent quite a few years testing food for Listeria, commissioning tests for Listeria and doing food hygiene audits of factories focusing on Listeria, pate is not the only food you will find it on, in fact if the container the pate is in was filled whilst the pate was still hot and sealed there will be NO Listeria risk once it is opened (then you have the normal Use within dates.

However, as you don't know how the pate was filled there is technically still a Listeria risk.

IME the worst culprits for Listeria contamination is fresh fruit and veg and we are not told to avoid them in pregnancy. The prewashed stuff gets a bad rep but it is subject to rigourous chlorine washing cannot say the same thing at home, how many of us just rinse an apple or some strawberries under the tap? I know I do.

There's a lot of hype about soft, unpasteurised cheese and of course there is a risk but in the industry this risk is well know and there are a lot of procedures in place to minimise this risk.

I think what I am trying to say is that a great deal of food will be a Listeria risk and you could go a bit mad in pregnancy trying to avoid everything and to complicate matters the advice varies from country to country.

Maybe there is a market for sterilised packets of food for pregnant women?

Ask them to come up with something else!

The stilton in the soup will be cooked presumably so that would probably be OK though.