French palate put to the test
Thanks to Melisa from Audrey & Marco for supplying me a sample of their online deli product of Duck Foie Gras, La Truffe Cendree ($48.50, 130g). To put it to the taste test I conducted a blind tasting against three cheaper patés. Myself and three other friends, including one who is French, were given a sample to taste without looking. We each had to nominate our favourite tasting and also pick which one we thought was the foie gras. I unfortunately failed miserably in picking the foie gras and ashamedly picked the cheapest paté while everyone else picked the foie gras out of the lineup. In my defence I was influenced by sneaky favourable comments made by the French friend when we tried the paté and learnt after he was trying to mislead everyone — it worked on me. Surprisingly everyone but the French friend picked the Maggie Beer Pheasant Farm Paté ($5.40, 120g) as their favourite. I think it was the robust and peppery flavour that we enjoyed matched with a nice smooth texture. The other two friends did correctly pick the foie gras out of the lineup.
With blind folds off the Duck Foie Gras was enjoyably smooth in texture with a good depth of flavour. In the words of the French guest, he 'loved it' and it was a no brainer for him in choosing as his favourite and the one that was the true foie gras. The cheapest Drava Liver Paté ($2.49) which I ashamedly picked as foie gras was also smooth but didn't have the same depth of flavour and also didn't look particularly appetising in appearance. The Real Paté Duck Paté ($3.99, 125g) was the least liked and was too firm in texture accompanied by a non-distinctive flavour. To help enjoy the foie gras we toasted De Luxe Brioche bought from David Jones and our French taste tester also generously brought along a bottle of 2006 Chateau de Suberne, Loupiac, France which matched very well.
Other Audrey & Marco products taste tested:
• 21 April 2011 - Duck Foie Gras
• 23 Mar 2011 - Tahini, Asparagus & Black Truffle Pate, Smoked Sea Salt Flakes, Calissons d'Aix, Mixed Fruit Jam, Marmalade, Wafers, Spaghetti
SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Unique taste, Quality product, Available for purchase online
CONS: Production of foie gras is contentious, Expensive
WORTH TRYING: Duck Foie Gras, Maggie Beer Pheasant Farm Paté
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Foie gras versus three patés
WORTH TRYING :-)
Drava Liver Paté ($2.49, 100g)
De Luxe Brioche from David Jones toasted as the base
Tasting notes. First number is the one we liked the most and the second number is the one we thought was the foie gras
3 comments:
What a fun activity!! I love pate.. haven't tried that maggie beer 1 before. So far the 1 I like is that Normandie Pate from woolies.. They have different flavour like cognac or champagne.. you can include that in your next pate taste test :)
I tend to find store bought foie gras a little grittier than the ones in restaurants :(
Maggie Beer pate is one of my favs <3 ooh and that duck foie gras does look quite tasty!
hi YW, you definitely should try the maggie beer. it's quite reasonably priced and tasty. i have seen the Normandie Pate brand. i'll have to give it a go.
hi vivian, i've had fresh foie gras in French and it was actually quite rustic in texture and not particularly very smooth so perhaps there's different styles/types depending on where it's made and how it's processed?
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