Ingredients:
1 lobe of goose or duck liver ~ 420 grams
~ 5g of fine salt
~ 1g of white ground pepper
1 T of cognac (brandy from cognac grapes)
the actual ratio of salt to liver is 1g of salt per 57.5g of liver
and 1g of pepper per 460g of liver (i.e. for 1150g of liver we used 20g of salt and 2.5g of pepper).
Just so we are clear, I know about the torture of the goose, and the political incorrectness of this food item.
Step one - Where to get the liver? Try your local boucherie or place you can get a fresh turkey. Order a goose or duck liver. Wait 3 days and it will likely be frozen when you receive it.
Step two - Working with the Liver If frozen, let it thaw, but only so much that you can pull the lobes apart, not so much so that it is too soft to work with. If it is too soft, put it in an ice bath and refrigerate it for several hours and start again. If you use the ice bath, pat the liver dry with paper towels before you work with it or add the salt, etc.
Step three - De-vein and De-nerve the liver. The goal here is to take the tough nerve and vein out without breaking the lobes. The vein and nerve run across the top of the three lobes and through them but once you find it (brighter red than the liver) gently follow it across pulling gently. If there is a little left it is not a crisis. Put it in ice bath again for 3-4 hours, then pat dry before moving on.
Step four - Adding the Salt. Weigh your liver accurately and calculate the salt and pepper. Weigh the salt very carefully. Gently rub that mixture onto both sides of all lobes of the liver. Place the whole thing in a bowl and pour on the cognac.
Step five - Putting it in the Tureen. Place the small lobe first in the tureen, then fold the rest of the liver into the tureen behind it so that there is a complete piece on top.
Step six - Preparing for Baking. Preheat the oven to 100 degrees C. You need to cook it in a covered terrine, which sits in a water bath, but you also need to exert some constant pressure on the liver so that the grease encircles it during baking. Our cooking teacher showed us how to trim a piece of cardboard to the size of exactly the top of the inside of the tureen, then cover it with aluminum foil and place it gently directly on top of the liver. Then, place the tureen lid on the aluminum lid and cover the tureen. Pat chose to wire it shut to add a little more pressure. The goal here is to create a downward pressure on the liver while it is cooking. Otherwise it will just float in the fat.
Step seven - Baking cook for 45 minutes at 100 degrees C or 212 degrees F.
Step eight - Chilling It still needs to be refrigerated, but again with the constant pressure. So take off the tureen lid, but leave the aluminum foil lid on the foie gras (it can be called foie gras now because it has been cooked.) Place a full can on top of the aluminum foil (or rocks) weighing it down while it cools. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
Step nine - Serving Serve very slightly chilled slices no more than 1/2" thick with Jurançon wine and a little toast or french bread. It's also good with a little sliced fig or fig jelly. In fact, you could have wrapped a couple of whole figs in the liver before you cooked it. Maybe next time...
