Chicken Faux Gras

I made Michel Richard's recipe of Chicken Faux Gras and
while I followed most of his recipe to a “T”, I did not use an oven-water bath
method to cook them. Instead I portioned
them out into mini loaf pans, froze them, then vacuum-sealed them and cooked them
SV @ 66 C for 3.5 hr. and then chilled them in an ice-water bath.

Everything looked and tasted great but...

After cooking, I started to wonder if I should have added
any cures, #1 or #2?

Was 66 C the proper temperature?

Could I have forgone the mini loaf pans and just sealed in a
bag? This would allow for cutting into
various shapes…

The one thing I should add is that they needed to be frozen
before vacuuming as there is too much air incorporated during the blending of
the mixture.

Any suggestions/comments would be appreciated.

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Comments

Chris_Young_80640

Personally, I would have used the InstaCure No. 1 (1 g of curing salt to 1000 g of foie gras would be a good ratio).

66 °C is a bit higher than I would have gone, but how did it turn out for you?

ipreferale

@Chris Young

It looked and tasted great but I was a little concerned about not adding any curing salts. What temp would you suggest for chicken livers treated this way, 54 C like your foie gras ganache?

reck.harm

Sorry i know this thread is already older but since i am looking to make this, i had a question.

What exactly would be the benefit of adding InstaCure No. 1 (Since it doesn't seem to be sold in Germany).

At 66°C for 3.5h i reckon the parfait should be well pasteurized, so i can only think of either esthetic reason i.e. better color or botulism, but i never heard of that being a concern with chicken liver parfait.

I'd appreciate an answer on that.

As for temperature, Heston Blumenthal gives a core temp of 62°C for his chicken liver parfait, so i figured i'd start there.

Pepijn_31744

InstaCure #1 is a combination of curing 93.75% table salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite. In the European Union it is banned because it contains more than the maximum allowed 0.6% sodium nitrite.

In theory you could use about 10 times as much (1 gram per 100 gram) curing salt, but this might result in product which is too salty. I'm not sure how much salt you normally would've added, so I can't comment on the desirability of this approach.

Be sure to reduce the amount of salt by the amount of curing salt used. Since 99% is salt anyway you can use a 1-1 conversion rate.

I usually get my curing salt at my butchers. Usually they don't even charge me for it.

Pepijn_31744

Don't forget that sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate are quite different and are used for different purposes. Be sure to get the right one

Manfred_18311

font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#444444;background:white;mso-ansi-language:

EN-US">@Harm_Reck

font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#444444;background:white;mso-ansi-language:

EN-US">Getting the European/German equivalent for InstaCure, curing salt with

0,4% - 0.5% NaNo² mixed in its rather simple. In Germany it’s called “Pökelsalz”

and sold at € 1,50/kg. You can order it online in nearly any Herb shop.

font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#444444;background:white;mso-ansi-language:

EN-US">You right, main reason of use is color and botulism. I just made a duck liver

parfait without curing salt and it work out all right. In the next run I’ll

give it a try and replace the spicing salt as requested by recipe with curing

salt just for a better color. After one day the liver parfait tends to take on

a little grayisch color once in contact with air (oxidizing), not that it would affect the

taste or quality in any way, but using curing salt would make it just look more

appetizing and prolong it’s storing capability for a day or two.

reck.harm

@Manfred

I knew that, but i noticed that instacure has way higer concentration of sodium nitrite, so i figured there might be an equivalent, so i wouldn't have to convert the percentages. Do you have an online source where i can order pökelsalz in small badges? All i found so far is either 10kg buckets or 25kg bags, which i reall don't need. I was gonna try something based on heston blumenthals chicken liver parfait, which contains eggs, so i reckon it won't keep well anyways, so i guess the only real benefit would be a nice pink color.

Manfred_18311

I got it

from www.gewürzstuebchen.de, they sell it in 1kg, and the delivery fee for 1 kg

will probably be higher than the product price. Since I cure fish and meat it

always comes in handy to have 2-3 kg in store. color:#444444;background:white;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">

http://www.gewuerzstuebchen.de/

reck.harm

that's alright, i've got a feeling i'll be able to find a few other things to order there

reck.harm

So i just did the Michel Richards recipe and it turned out pretty great. Ididn't use any curing salt and i'm still alive, though i figure the color might be reason enough to use it next time. The recipe says to use 1 tsp of salt which i weight out at 5.6g so i guess i could just use 5g of pökelsalz for the 500g of chicken liver next time. Also i don't have a good way to cook in my sv-baths baine-marie style so i just sealed everything in a vaccum pouch and cooked it at 63°C for about 2 1/2 h. It had gone slightly gritty during cooking so i just quickly re-emulsified it with an immersion belnder. you can still see some grainyness if you look closely, but the mouthfeel was excellent.

Gerald_Hoelzl_58125

@Harm Reck:

Athough this thread is a bit older, you might try www.eder-tee.at for Pökelsalz. They sell several different concentrations, as well in household as commercial quantities for very reasonable prices.