Duck Foie Gras Terrine

A recipe from Teresa, which I'm posting in my role as the blog's facilitator. I understand she makes it — I don't know how often — but it's a thoroughly tested recipe. Teresa is a pharmacist, which explains the conversion factors and the precision.

Ingredients and data for 4 people
Take a fresh fattened duck liver of about 500 g and weigh it exactly. Calculate a conversion factor (Cf) by dividing the exact weight of the liver, in grams, by 1200. Round to 4 decimal places (a very important step). The exact cooking time will be Cf x 75 minutes.

Other ingredients
Fine salt: Cf x 16 g.
Caster sugar: Cf x 4 g.
Freshly ground black pepper: Cf x 3 g.
"Quatre épices" (French spice mix): a small pinch.
Coarse salt (fine will do): one tablespoon.

Method
Put the raw duck liver in a large bowl (a salad bowl). Cover it with cold water, add the tablespoon of coarse salt and six ice cubes. The liver should be well covered. Put the bowl in the fridge and leave it for about twelve hours.

Twelve hours later, turn the oven on at 150 degrees (or gas mark 4). Put the oven tray on the second-lowest shelf (in the bottom third) and fill it with fresh water.

Take the liver out of the bath, rinse it under the cold tap and dry it carefully with a fine, clean, lint-free cloth.

Separate the two lobes of the liver and remove any remains of the thin membrane around them; with a small pointed knife, carefully remove the small visible veins and any traces of blood. If there are traces of bile (green in colour), remove them completely with the tip of the knife.

Place the two lobes of liver side by side on a tray.

In a small bowl, mix well the fine salt (Cf x 16 g.), the caster sugar (Cf x 4 g.), the ground pepper (Cf x 3 g.) and the pinch of quatre épices. Season the liver with the mixture on both sides, as evenly as possible.

Put the two lobes of liver into an oval terrine about 16 cm long, 11 cm wide and 8 cm deep. It's important to place the rounded side of the lobes against the bottom of the terrine, first the larger lobe and then the smaller one, arranging them so there are no gaps between them.

Once the lobes are well placed, press down firmly with the palm of your hand to bind them together, and put the lid on the terrine.

In a small bowl, mix a glass of flour with water added little by little, stirring well, until you get a sticky dough, like bread dough. Use this dough to seal the terrine lid hermetically all the way round, also covering the small hole usually found in the middle of the lid.

Put the prepared terrine in the oven tray, making sure there is always water in it. The water in the tray must not boil during cooking; it should stay at around 70 degrees.

When the cooking time (Cf x 75 minutes) is up, take the terrine out of the oven and wrap it well in an old wool blanket, so it stays well covered and cools as slowly as possible. Make sure it stays level while it cools and leave it in a room at moderate temperature, without moving it, for about ten or twelve hours.

When the terrine is completely cold, put it in the fridge without touching the sealed lid and forget about it for three days or more. When it's time to eat it, remove the lid carefully so no dough falls in, and if you want to take the foie gras out, dip the terrine in hot water for a minute and turn the foie gras out onto a serving plate.

NOTES:

The foie gras should be beige on the outside and light pink inside. If it's greyish brown it's overcooked, and if it's reddish it's undercooked.

It's best to start the foie gras in the morning, leave it soaking until the evening, prepare and cook it, and leave it to cool overnight, so it goes in the fridge the next morning and then rests for three days; so you need to start preparing it 4 days before the date you plan to eat it.

Given the market price of 500 g of fresh duck liver, you're advised to follow the recipe instructions to the letter. This translator accepts no responsibility for the results obtained, in any case.

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