1,574 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.

17 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

The other use for bowl scraper

Your kitchen or bakery utensils may include a horn (left) or a pastry cutter (right). These practical utensils are normally used to scoop the contents of a bowl or salad bowl - the horn - or to cut dough - the pastry cutter. But they also have another, very practical use - let's see what it is.
May 9^th 2026795

The strange foam of potatoes in milk

As you may have already noticed, when you cook potatoes in milk, especially in small pieces (slices or cubes) for a gratin for example, a surprisingly abundant white foam forms on the surface. Where does it come from?
April 26^th 20261,005

A little leftover butter

Very often when you're making a cake, your recipe will tell you to melt some butter and mix it into the batter - a classic for cookies, cakes, moelleux and the like. And every time you do this, you'll have to butter the baking tin to prevent the dough from sticking during baking. Naturally,...
April 16^th 20261,0915

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 20261,8265

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 20261,6205

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

No need to boil gelatin

Gelatin is a magical ingredient for making light, creamy, structured desserts, yet it's often misused in the kitchen. A common mistake in some recipes is the idea that it needs to be boiled for it to work properly, but this is a mistake indeed: gelatin melts at a much lower temperature, around...
November 21^th 202410 K5

Cream and sauces

Have you ever wondered why making beautiful tasty sauces is so easy when you use cream? .
October 15^th 201224 K4.4

Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting

In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough. To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of...
January 30^th 201564 K4.0

Steam for baking bread

What does steam have to do with bread-making? This is not only a bakers' secret, it is something you might not think of at all: if you make bread and bake it like a cake, you will end up with bread, but pale and with a thick, hard crust – a long way from the golden-brown crusty loaf you had in...
June 16^th 2021150 K4.5

The French baguette and UNESCO

As you may have already read here or there, France has initiated for some time the procedure to try to have the French baguette classified as an intangible world heritage by UNESCO. When you put it like that, it sounds a bit namby-pamby, and it would be tempting to imagine an American (for...
March 18^th 202016 K4.9