Fresh vs frozen foie gras?

I'll be buying a lobe of foie gras and flash frozen is about $30 less expensive than fresh, which I've used before. Is there any real difference?

It will be used for 12 portions of Foie Gras au Torchon and 12 seared foie of some sort.

Murgaritz cook there seared fois gras from frozen, which has become a popular technique ( fat duck also ), it allows you to get a nice sear without the centre "splitting" in which case I'd say go frozen. I freeze the pasteurized lobes we use.

It is all fat so it freezes nicely. It's not like a steak w muscles fibers that gets a funky texture after being frozen.

can't enjoy it anymore here in california...

Just don't try to cut whole frozen lobes...not that I've ever watched that go wrong lol!

The only things I've ever done with it are emulsions, seared sashimi style, and torchon....never micuit what ever that is, but my experience has been the initial freezing isn't a problem unless your being sold old product, its the holding that can be troubling. Once you thaw, and unpack a lobe, they're really only great for two days, after that I don't enjoy it. With that in mind many suppliers will clean and portion them for you -- its more per pound, and I didn't think the portions were even enough for sushi bar, but at our smaller location we simply couldn't sell it fast enough, lobe ends piled up in the freezer until we had enough for 20 pounds of torchon.

Another thing, We have a chiller for sushi set at 32.5, cost a lot more to be so stable, but I've found that chest freezers keep it too hard -- making it challenging to quickly sear AND cook though. If kept in line coolers, it feels like its melting before it even hits the pan. Thawing in the chiller made it easier to retain the springy creamy texture without rendering it into something terrible.

You probably know more than my drunk ass, but that's my take on it.

Dang, now I have a fever, a fever for more foie gras.... Haven't had any in quite some time.

Stefan

Portioned, vac sealed individually and frozen until it hits a hot pan for searing is what we do. Helps create that perfect texture balance between the seared exterior and molten soft interior. And if doing torchon(either salt curing or poaching) frozen lobes and or scraps are perfectly fine. Just look for discolored pieces as they will ruin the overall aesthetics of the sliced torchon.

Von blewitt said:

Murgaritz cook there seared fois gras from frozen, which has become a popular technique ( fat duck also ), it allows you to get a nice sear without the centre "splitting" in which case I'd say go frozen. I freeze the pasteurized lobes we use.

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I could be wrong but i believe Heston talks about how he has his vendor flash freeze it at -100? that number could be wrong since i'm not at home to quickly look that up.