Foie Gras Entier/Whole Foie Gras

[offcentre]

A friend bought me a present back from France - 500g Foie Gras Entier.

I have no previous with Foie Gras at all and have just discovered that...

"Foie gras entier is the purest form of foie gras. It consists of a whole foie gras that has been deveined, cleaned, seasoned and sterilized-cooked in its own fat, without any additives. It has a firm and dense texture and can be made of goose or duck liver, each fowl having its own delicate taste."

What can I do with this? Is it best to eat as it is, can it be sauteed, made into pate...?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ross

[Corinna Dunne]

What a lovely present! The foie gras you have has already been cooked, so there's no need to saute it. If you turn it out of the jar or tin that it is in, you can cut it into slices and serve it like a pate. If you dunk the container into a little hot water before you tip it out it will help melt some of the fat around the edge and release it. Traditionally it is served with brioche, which is a light sweet bread from France, and Sauternes, a French botrytised (sweet) wine.

[alexw]

personally I like to make a quick jelly (or jello) with my Sauternes, set it in the fridge and chop it up just before you need it, devour with some polaine toast

[I_call_the_duck]

The best thing to do would be to send it to me!

[ned]

How long is this stuff good? I've had a tin in the fridge for 6 months.

[Corinna Dunne]

Tinned foie gras has a long shelf life, so you should be fine. I just checked some that I have and it's marked 2007. Have a close look for a best before date.

[ned]

thanks

[BryanZ]

I have a valuable whole lobe of foie gras sitting in deep-freeze. I'm leaving home and would like to take this item with me in the car. I'll be driving from NJ to NC, about eight hours. Do you guys know if this is possible, will it keep and not thaw out?

It was shipped to me frozen with some freezer gel packs but will that alone suffice? I feel like I need to keep it MUCH colder. Maybe dry ice in a small cooler?

If anyone has any experience with this type of thing I'd love to hear it.

Thanks.

[snowangel]

Bryan, will you be transporting any other frozen food at the same time? In my experience, stuff like regular meat (frozen solid) in a good cooler will travel for 8 hours in a cooler very well, and would serve as good "ice packs" for the precious stuff.

[Fat Guy]

Not a problem at all. We do stuff like that all the time using a small disposable (though we've re-used it about 50 times) cooler that came with a Lobel's order awhile back. A couple of weeks ago we had a piece of frozen meat in that thing for 14 hours, about 7 of them with the car parked in the hot sun, and it came out hard as a rock. The four important things to do are 1- resist the temptation to open the cooler before you reach your destination, 2- use a lot of freezer packs, as many as you can cram in there so as to avoid having a lot of air space in the cooler (if you don't have enough freezer packs, fill a few sandwich-size Zip-Loc bags with water and freeze them), 3- be sure to put the freezer packs on TOP of the items you want to keep cold, and 4- don't mix frozen and refrigerated items in the same cooler because the refrigerated items will thaw the frozen ones.

[snowangel]

4- don't mix frozen and refrigerated items in the same cooler because the refrigerated items will thaw the frozen ones.

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or the frozen ones freeze the non-frozen ones (like lettuce).

Oh, and try and keep the cooler out of the sun.

[moosnsqrl]

We've discovered (from years of sailing mostly) that freezing empty plastic milk jugs (half-gallon, filled with water-duh) really help keep the temp down in a cooler as well. I assume it's the greater mass (as opposed to the flat "blue ice" inserts that often come with coolers) that helps them hold better. I imagine based on that theory that gallon jugs would work even better but we don't have the freezer space to freeze them, nor are we willing to give up that much cooler space.

As the others said, resist the temptation to open and check on it and avoid direct sun. For the length of trip you describe it should be fine.

[Daniel]

Bryan,

I would be more the happy to drive it down for you.. Just drop it off up here..

[Raoul Duke]

Just don't drive through Chicago with it. You may be arrested!!

Raoul

[Megan Blocker]

Bryan,

I would be more the happy to drive it down for you..  Just drop it off up here..

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Doh! Daniel got first dibs. Man.

Back on-topic...Bryan, I think you'll be fine...I do like the idea of filling the cooler up. If you're not transporting anything else, frozen water bottles might do the trick.

[coquus]

I don't know how good of an idea this is. Doesn't fat thaw faster than meat? But if it's large enough and stocked well with other frozen product and insulation it will be OK.

I bought a second hand freezer/cooler for my car a while back and use it for food runs, they work inside too, but they run about three hundred for a small one, and you could probably wouldn't make your money back, but, on the other hand, it could be a good thing to have around at college.

Edited August 22, 2006 by coquus (log)

[BryanZ]

I'd like to roast or poach a large piece of foie gras (at least a pound) for Thanksgiving but don't know how best to approach this task. I've only cooked foie gras via searing, sous vide, or stuffed inside of pasta.

I know Keller has a method in his cookbook, and I will try to procure a copy in the next day or so, but I'd love to hear advice from people here?

Which method yields better results? If I poach, what should I poach in? I know gerwurtzaminer is a popular choice, but I'm assuming I should cook off the alcohol first or dilute it somewhat. If I roast, what seasonings besides S+P, and what temperature for how long.

Since I'll want to keep it whole should I just devein it roughly, removing only the main veins in each lobe? Should I even devein at all? Naturally, I'll soak it in milk to draw out any impurities but what other prep goes into a whole foie preparation like this.

Thanks for the help.

[ChefJohnny]

You definitly want to devein the lobes... noone likes veins in their foie. Split the lobes as per usual and carefully devien. Once youre all done, put the lobes back together and chill for at least 6 hours so it retains its original shape.

Once chilled, score the ENTIRE foie gras and sear on all sides on high heat, just as you do with portioned foie. Add some crushed garlic cloves and thyme sprigs and roast at about 250, basting with the foie fat, garlic and thyme every 10 - 15 minutes until desired doneness.

Thats right from the TFL kitchen, as Ive done it with TK many times. Enjoy your whole roasted foie... im jealous.

-Chef Johnny

[MobyP]

Once youre all done, put the lobes back together and chill for at least 6 hours so it retains its original shape.

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Hw do you devein and then put back together without it falling apart when you then apply heat? Do you have to really squish it together after deveining?

[budrichard]

Be aware that a foie is mostly fat, so if you roast at a high temp, you will end up with a little lump and a lot of runny fat. Better to poach in a pate mold put into a bain marie in the oven to control the temperature. That is how I use a whole foie It's like #12 Waygu beef, it has so much fat that a large piece renders itself before you reach an internal temperature that signifies its done.

Taking the veins out of a whole foie must be learned by doing. Do it and piece back together, it will mold itself as it cooks into one piece.-Dick

[MobyP]

I know. I've done it half a dozen times or so. The question is how do you remold it in a way that when faced with high heat - direct or unbound in poaching - it won't begin to fall apart along the seems of where you broke it up.

As for the whole roasting/fat loss issue, people have roasted foie for centuries. And actually, if it's a little cold, you should be able to keep a medium rare center. You can achieve a good maillard reaction with foie relatively quickly if the pan is hot enough. So long as you then keep rotating it to make it even you have a result. Also, Chef Johnny uses a 250 oven which is unlikely to cause damage at too fast a rate. I guess the alternate method would be to roast it at 250 until done (not sure how you'd go about evaluating that partcular issue) and then blow-torch the thing.

I know Ducasse and L'Ambroisie will serve whole lobes roasted. Obviously it's fairly simple to take out the major veins. They then roll the lobe slightly to maintain its integrity in the hot pan. I still wonder about the two lobes though.

[budrichard]

I know. I've done it half a dozen times or so. The question is how do you remold it in a way that when faced with high heat - direct or unbound in poaching - it won't begin to fall apart along the seems of where you broke it up.

As for the whole roasting/fat loss issue, people have roasted foie for centuries. And actually, if it's a little cold, you should be able to keep a medium rare center. You can achieve a good maillard reaction with foie relatively quickly if the pan is hot enough. So long as you then keep rotating it to make it even you have a result. Also, Chef Johnny uses a 250 oven which is unlikely to cause damage at too fast a rate. I guess the alternate method would be to roast it at 250 until done (not sure how you'd go about evaluating that partcular issue) and then blow-torch the thing.

I know Ducasse and L'Ambroisie will serve whole lobes roasted. Obviously it's fairly simple to take out the major veins. They then roll the lobe slightly to maintain its integrity in the hot pan. I still wonder about the two lobes though.

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Have you actually roasted a whole foie?

250F is not roasting but warming a foie similar to putting your mold in a bain marie in the oven.

I would consider roasting at above 400F, and if not experienced, the average person will overcook the foie to get what the food safety people tell us is an adequate temperature for poultry resulting in a puddle of fat. One would need to remove the foie at a very low center temp from roasting and then let the foie further cook in the remaining heat. I suppose with a lot of experience one may be able to achieve a good result but the result is not any different than using a mold, bain marie in the oven.-Dick

[BryanZ]

Given ChefJohnny's experience I'm incliined to trust him.

So here's my problem with this foie gras preparation. First of all my deveining technique sucks as it is. I've read the resources, looked a diagrams, etc, but I've never been taught by someone who knows how with an actual liver to work on together.

Furthermore, I'm too anal to let the small veins I see just go. I know you don't HAVE to take them out when doing a whole roasted foie, but if they're there I, personally, HAVE to remove them. When I make poached torchons I end up passing the whole thing through a tamis to make sure there are no veins at all.

The end result is a foie that's rather mangled and now resting in the shape of a torchon rather than a whole liver. Not exactly what I was going for, but I'm sure it'll do. I'm also not sure if the quality of the foie I was working with today was all that great. Even though it was grade A there seemed to be more bruising and blood spots that usual. Perhaps there were more veins, too?

[Silly Disciple]

This method comes from a Spanish chef's kitchen, but I won't say which since I haven't been able to confirm it yet.

1. cook the whole foie gras sous vide, 60C for 25-30 minutes depending on thickness. The center of the product should reach this temperature (per Roca's book). you will have to devein it beforehand, of course. It would be a good time to season it too.

2. freeze it.

3. at service time, put the whole liver in a deep frier (yes, you've heard that right) at high temperature until you get a golden exterior. This will vary depending on the temperature of the frozen liver and the oil. YMMV, I guess, and I haven't personally tried it.

for what I've been told, the logic behind it is the same TK poses in his book re: beurre monte, e.g. the loss from the foie should be minimum when the medium is of same or higher density.

Edited November 23, 2006 by Silly Disciple (log)

[MobyP]

As a torchon is served essentially raw - Keller suggests something along the lines of 90 seconds simmering for a 3" wide torchon, a time and temperature that would barely penetrate much past the surface, let alone cook to health department specifications - I don't see that a low internal temp would be an issue.