Home › Beverages › Mock Pate de Foie Gras No. 1
Mock Pate de Foie Gras No. 1
3/4 pound calves liver 4 chicken livers 1/2 cup bacon fat 1/2 cup butter 1 large carrot, grated 2 small onions, grated 3/4 cup soup stock 1 teaspoon salt 1/16 teaspoon cayenne 1/4 cup chicken or turkey fat Slice liver thin. Put the bacon fat and half the butter in a pan with liver and fry slowly, turning often. Remove liver and add vegetables with 1/2 cup stock and seasonings. Cook, tightly covered, until tender. Add liver and cook 5 minutes, tightly covered. Put through the meat grinder several times with fine knife, then rub through sieve. Set bowl in ice and add remaining soup stock, beating until it is very light in color. Heat remaining butter and fat together, pour a little into glass jars, nearly fill with prepared paste, and cover with fat again. Keep in ice box.
A straightforward potted liver paste, sealed under fat in the pre-refrigerator manner. The one thing to get right is the liver itself: it is fried slowly and then simmered only five minutes, which is deliberate, because liver cooked hard turns grainy and metallic and no amount of sieving will bring it back.
- The stock is split, though the list does not say soThe 3/4 cup of soup stock is used in two stages: 1/2 cup goes in with the carrot and onion, and the remaining 1/4 cup is beaten in at the end over ice. Beating cold stock into the cooled paste is what lightens the color and the texture.
- 1/16 teaspoon cayenneAn unusually fine measure, a scant pinch, roughly half of a 1/8 teaspoon. Add it at the vegetable stage as written, with the other seasonings, so it disperses rather than sitting in hot spots.
- Chicken or turkey fatRendered poultry fat, what a Jewish kitchen calls schmaltz. Skim it from cooled roasting juices or from the top of chilled stock; supermarket rendered duck fat is the nearest bought equivalent, and clarified butter will do if you accept a plainer flavor.
- Grinder and sieveSeveral passes through a fine grinder plate followed by sieving was the usual route to a smooth paste in a kitchen of this date. A food processor run for two or three minutes, scraping down, gets there faster, but still press the result through a fine sieve if you want the silky texture the recipe is after.
- Setting the bowl in iceNot decoration. The recipe wants the paste well chilled before the remaining stock is beaten in; working cold helps the emulsion hold and is what lightens the colour. A metal bowl in a larger bowl of ice water is the modern version of the same trick.
- Icebox, and how long it keeps'Keep in ice box' means keep it constantly chilled; the modern equivalent is a refrigerator at 40F or below. A fat seal slows surface spoilage but does not preserve cooked liver; treat this as a fresh product, keep it refrigerated at all times, and eat it within three or four days. Do not hold it at room temperature or store it as a shelf-stable potted meat.
- VesselsSmall glass jars or ramekins, filled to within about a quarter inch of the top so the melted fat can be poured over to cover completely. Once opened, the seal is finished and the jar should be used up.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; expect roughly two to three cups of finished paste. Serve cold on toast or crackers with something sharp alongside, such as cornichons or pickled onion.