Home › The Principles of Cookery › Foie Gras Toast
Foie Gras Toast
Cut two or three slices of buttered toast into finger-lengths about one inch wide. Spread them over with foie gras about a quarter of an inch thick; dust a little cayenne pepper over; put into the oven for a few minutes, and serve very hot.
A savoury in the plainest Victorian style: hot buttered toast, a thick smear of potted liver, cayenne, a brief turn in the oven. The whole thing takes five minutes and rewards restraint.
- What "foie gras" means hereCassell's is assuming the tinned pâté de foie gras sold by grocers — a soft, spreadable, well-seasoned liver paste, not a whole raw lobe. Use a smooth pâté or parfait you can spread with a palette knife; a firm terrine will not lie a quarter of an inch thick without tearing the toast.
- The hinge: barely warm it"A few minutes" is only long enough to warm the surface; the recipe names no temperature. In a modern oven, a moderate heat for two to three minutes is enough. Past that the fat renders out, the paste slides off and what is left tastes greasy rather than rich.
- Toast first, thoroughlyThe toast must be crisp and buttered while hot before the pâté goes on, or the brief oven stage will steam it limp. Toast on both sides, butter, cool for a moment so the butter sets, then spread.
- Cayenne is the seasoning, not a garnishThe recipe asks for "a little" cayenne, but it is there to season rather than decorate: rich liver with no heat against it flattens quickly on the palate.
- CuttingThe recipe cuts the toast into inch-wide fingers before spreading; cutting after drags the topping.
- YieldTwo or three slices give roughly eight to twelve fingers, enough for four people as a savoury or a pre-dinner bite. A quarter-inch layer over that much toast will take 4 oz of pâté at least.
Toast under a rich topping, served hot at the very end of dinner, was the English savoury — the course that came after the sweet and before dessert in the Victorian and Edwardian ordering of a meal, and which had no real counterpart in French service. Anchovy, marrow, cheese, kidney and soft roes all appear in the same role in Cassell's. Foie gras was the luxury version: preserved goose or duck liver from Strasbourg and the Périgord had long been sold across Europe in potted and terrine form, with tinned versions following later, and by the time this dictionary appeared a British household could buy it from a good grocer without ever seeing a goose. The recipe's brevity is the point — the expense sits in the tin, and the cook is told to do as little to it as possible.