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Have you ever tried foie gras?  What does foie gras taste like?

It has a peculiar taste and creates a unique experience in your mouth.

As per various experts, just before you try this delicacy, make sure that it is prepared by a professional cook and find out what this dish is and from where it comes from. Also, if a professional expert prepares, you get the hang of it and can even prepare it at home.

What is Foie Gras?

Before you start running to your kitchen or to the department store to purchase the foie gras, you must know what this delicacy is and made off. Foie gras is a French word and means ‘fatty liver’. Most of the time, just before migrating, waterfowls will start to gorge in order to fatten their livers. By fattening their liver, they are ensuring that the liver acts as a caloric gas tank which they can use for fueling their long and tiring flight.

As geese and ducks got domesticated, traditional farmers decided to take advantage of the natural propensity of overeating and started to force-feed these birds to make their livers as tasty and big similar to the wild ones.

What Does Foie Gras Taste Like?

Okay! So, how does foie gras look like or what does foie gras taste like?

Let’s see. The taste is mind-blowing and is nothing like what you have ever tried before. In short, you can say that it is a slight combination of something that is sweet and salty. Somewhat its texture is similar to butter, rich and soft, melting in your mouth and giving you a really awesome experience.

Like most individuals, I tried and really enjoyed it. It is like getting an invitation to heaven and I wallowed the immense pleasure of the soft and tangy meat chunk getting slowly absorbed by my taste buds.

Various Kinds of Foie Gras

Unlike other meat products, the foie gras comes in various grades or shapes and sizes. Commonly, the foie gras is oval and contains two bulbous lobes. And each of them is smaller than the other and weights around 1.8 to 2.5 pounds. The liver is cream, pinkish colored and quite delicate, so you must be very careful while cooking it. Also, prolonged or extensive heating of the liver will melt the fat.

Do you know that livers are graded based on the quality? The top grade is the ‘A’ livers. They are huge, firm and have smooth texture along with no blemish (i.e. blood spot) and consistent colors. Furthermore, the top quality livers always smell sweet and are shiny. Most of the chef’s use grade ‘A’ foie gras to prepare simple delicacies like sautéing or searing, classic terrine in which the entire liver is deeply cooked in porcelain terrine. This is then water bathed and later on chilled and served in cold slices.

Now grade ‘B’ foie grass will have a softer texture and be smaller in terms of size. Also, it will be flatter and there will be some amount of minor defects on the surface or blood, along with the presences of eminent veins compared to the ‘A’ livers. With regard to the quality, it will be as delicious and good as the top-quality livers.

However, such kind of livers is commonly used to make the terrine, mousse, and other delicacies where the blood gets melted away during the cooking process. You can use the grade ‘B’ liver for searing, however, most of the chefs use and recommend in using the aesthetic and firmer ‘A’ liver.

You get the grade ‘C’ liver sporadically and it is pale when compared to the other livers, ‘A’ and ‘B’. This liver is often used by the chefs to thicken and flavor sauces.

Preparing Foie Gras

Foie gras entire, whole foie gras, and terrine of foie gras, all refer to the whole liver which is cleaned, deveined, and slowly cooked. Frankly, this is the simplest, plain and one of the purest kinds of foie gras that is prepared. To create this dish, you need certain basic ingredients like pepper, salt, and a small amount of Sauternes wine.

Another pure form of foie gras preparation is the Torchon. This particular foie gras is named from the dish towel, with which the pieces of the raw foie gras are wrapped, just before boiled in wine, water or stock. You also need to try the mousse of foie gras, pureed foie gras, bloc foie gras which is less expensive and allows one to get in touch with the silky and delicious flavor of the foie grass. Now what makes this product really tasty and provide a silky flavor is the addition of the wine or water while the product gets emulsified, baked and blended.

Wrapping Up

Besides the fresh foie gras, you can get canned ones in the US. And these canned products are imported from France and doesn’t do any justice to the liver. So, if you really want to enjoy the real taste of foie gras, go for the fresh and non-canned one.