1,567 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Foie gras service

For the upcoming christmas meals you too may be sacrificing to the tradition of foie gras?

If so, I suggest you take a look at everything that revolves around serving foie gras: how to serve it, and what to eat and drink with it.

16 K 4.9/5 (14 reviews)

Last modified on: December 23^th 2017

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Foie gras service

1) Temperature

This is an important point, the foie gras needs to be fresh but not too hard either because it just came out of the fridge. The ideal combination for this is to take it out of the fridge 10 minutes before serving, but not more, because then it softens too much, especially in rooms that are a bit warm (in temperature).

2) Accompaniment

For the choice of what you will drink and eat with it, there are basically 2 schools: either you are rather "tone on tone", and so you accompany the softness and sweetness of the foie gras, or you are rather "contrast" and in this case on the contrary, you will look for a break, with something drier and sharper.

Let's break it down a bit:

Toasts

If you are "tone on tone", you will go for a soft and tender bread, like a pain de mie, or even more so a brioche, or even a thin slice of pain d'épices. If you're in that shade, with you'll probably also enjoy either a bit of chutney, or a fruit jam that's a bit tart, or some dried fruit like apricots.

If you're "contrast", it's the opposite direction: a rustic, typey, crusty bread, ideally a sourdough bread, or a country bread (or both), maybe even a rye bread or a seed bread (top!). With this bread, the taste of the foie gras is enhanced, made even softer by the difference in texture. No accompaniment with it (jam or other), at most a turn of the pepper mill or a pinch of fleur de sel, on the liver, just before tasting, for those who like it.

seed bread

Wine

The "tone on tone" will go towards a sweet wine, or even a syrupy one, always in the accompaniment. Sauternes is a great classic for sweet wines, as is sweet Jurançon. But for a more subtle nuance, I invite you to try a Loire wine such as Coteaux du Layon, it is in the tone on tone, but more nuanced.

The "contrasts" will lean towards the opposite, dry and fruity, staying on the side of Angers, a Savennières is an excellent choice, but also a more classic wine like a Chablis or a Reuilly.
A daring trick to try if you can, while going for a dry white wine, try a Vin du Jura en cépage Savagnin, be careful it's special, but with its nutty aromas, what a result!
Still in contrast, you should not limit yourself to white, a well tannic red wine is also a very interesting option.

foie gras and wine

What to choose?

So there is no right or wrong way to enjoy foie gras, there are just 2 ways, and again, they can be mixed according to your taste, the important thing is that you like it, and that it is the taste of the foie gras that dominates.

For a family meal with several guests, and therefore different tastes, you can ensure a complete success by serving two different wines, and several kinds of bread, to please both trends.

For example, I'm very much a contrarian and can't appreciate the sweet and sour side, so I serve the foie gars with toasted sourdough and cereal bread. And with that, a glass of coteaux du Jura, or a coteaux du Layon "Croix-blanche" (the one Sylvie Termeau makes at the Moulin de Chauvigné in Rochefort-sur-loire, France is just perfect) depending on the taste of the guests.

To sum up: Foie gras out of the fridge 10 minutes before, and served with toast and a wine "tone on tone", or on the contrary "contrasted" according to your taste.

Lasts posts

A tablet holder

Perhaps you too cook by consulting your recipe on a tablet or phone, and putting it down on your worktop? It's practical, but not the best solution. Here's a look at how you can make an inexpensive, almost universal stand.
March 14^th 20261,1295

Pre-calibrated pastry dough

When making pie dough (shortbread, shortcrust, sweet...), it's always a good idea to make a lot at once, and then divide it into pieces, which you can freeze. I've already pointed out the mistake not to make, which is to form a ball before freezing. It's difficult to roll out afterwards because...
March 9^th 20261,1155

Butter vs. grease

We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?
December 1^st 20253,1685

Getting out of the fridge early

Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?
November 24^th 20252,0935

Who's making the croissants?

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 20251,914

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

85 grams of eggs?

Some time ago, I already spoke to you about the difference between baking and pastry-making, I emphasized, among other things, the precision of pastry-making which requires grams, cm, degrees and minutes. That's why, on the one hand, you have baking and cooking, where a certain tolerance is...
November 26^th 201858 K4.6

Drawing a pattern in pastry

Often in the kitchen, in pastry-making, or in baking, we need to trace a pattern on a pastry. It's just a question of aesthetics but it has its effect after baking on a galette, pithiviers, pâté en croute (terrine in a pie crust), etc.
May 23^th 201937 K4.1

Kitchen ovens

You certainly have one in your kitchen, an oven, the essential tool for all kinds of cooking, whether in the kitchen of course, but also in pastry, bakery, pizza, and many others. Here is some information on its structure and operation.
May 16^th 202035 K4.4

The art of the charlotte

In cooking, a charlotte is a delicious moulded dessert, with biscuits around the outside that have been soaked in a flavoured syrup, filled with a light cream or mousse. The charlotte is left to set in the fridge before being turned out and served in slices. It is very light and a lovely sweet...
February 27^th 201347 K4.3

Fruits which can ruin your jelly

There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...
March 6^th 201380 K4.0