Foie Gras Torchon

A whole lobe of foie gras deveined, seasoned with a salt-sugar-pepper cure and Cognac, rolled tight in cheesecloth, hung in the refrigerator, poached for two minutes and hung again. Sliced into ivory discs.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Pâtés and Terrines section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 1 whole Grade A or B fresh foie gras, about 500–750 g

Cure mix

• 75 g salt
• 25 g sugar
• 12.5 g pink curing salt (optional)
• 10 g white or black pepper

Also

• 2–3 tablespoons brandy (Cognac)
• Coarse salt, toast and preserves, to serve

Directions

1. Rest the foie gras at room temperature 45 minutes. Split the lobes and remove the veins with a paring knife and tweezers. Chill.
2. Grind the salt, sugar, curing salt and pepper to a powder. Weigh out 2.5% of the foie gras’s weight (12.5 g for 500 g) and keep the rest for another batch.
3. On a triple layer of plastic wrap about 12 × 18 inches, spread the foie gras membrane-side down into a rough 9-inch square of even thickness.
4. Sieve half the measured mix over it and sprinkle with half the Cognac. Flip, and season the other side the same way.
5. Roll into a tight cylinder using a bamboo sushi mat.
6. Roll again in quadruple-layer cheesecloth (16 inches × 2 feet). Twist and tie the ends, twisting the twine until fat leaks and the roll feels as firm as a bicycle tire. Hang in the refrigerator 1–3 days.
7. Poach 2 minutes in water at 160 °F (71 °C), then chill in an ice bath 10 minutes and dry.
8. Re-tighten until fat shows along the whole length. Hang 1–3 more nights.
9. Trim the ends, unwrap and slice into discs; trim any oxidized edges with a ring cutter. Serve with coarse salt, toast and preserves.

Notes

Source Adapted from J. Kenji López-Alt, “Foie Gras Torchon,” Serious Eats.

On the cure At 2.5% of the liver’s weight, a mix that is about 10% pink salt puts roughly 0.25% Cure No. 1 on the liver — the arithmetic is this collection’s, not the source’s. The pink salt keeps the color and can be left out.

The name Torchon is French for a dish towel, the cloth the liver was traditionally rolled and poached in. The traditional method plunges it hors feu — off the heat — into water that has just stopped boiling.

Food safety Foie gras sits outside every published time–temperature table: it is poultry, but 50–60% fat. This is a mi-cuit (half-cooked) preparation, and there is no validated safety process for it at home.

Buying it Grade A has the fewest veins and suits low-temperature cooking. California has banned its production and in-state sale since 1 July 2012, though the Ninth Circuit held in 2022 that out-of-state sellers may ship it to Californians; New York City’s 2019 ban has never taken effect. The Foie Gras page has the details.

The Pâtés and Terrines section’s Foie Gras page (/pates-and-terrines/foie-gras/) covers the history and technique behind this dish.

The photo The photograph shows a restaurant duck foie gras torchon, not this recipe.