To make a terrine, the livers are pressed
gently into a container and cooked in a water
bath; to prepare a torchon of foie gras, they’re
wrapped in a cloth and poached in stock or in
duck or goose fat. Fat loss is minimized by
gentle, gradual heating just to the desired
doneness (from 110 to 160ºF/45–70ºC, lower
temperatures giving a creamier texture), the
liquid kept only a few degrees above the
target temperature. Cooling partly solidifies
the fat, which allows the terrine or torchon to
be sliced cleanly, and then contributes a
melting firmness to the dish’s texture as it’s
eaten.
Skin, Cartilage, and Bones
Usually cooks don’t welcome large amounts
of toughening connective tissue in meat. But
taken on their own, animal skin, cartilage, and
bones are valuable exactly because they’re
mostly connective tissue and therefore full of