Frequently, when we go to shop Foie, can find Micuit or Paté and don’t know exactly what the difference is. Manuel de Prado, owner of the most prestigious duck farm in Spain: Selectos de Castilla, explains us the differences:
- MAGRET is the duck breast. The ducks are overfed, forced to eat up to bloating –embuchar– that makes the meat streaked with fat and underneath the skin the fat is around 1 centimeter thick.
- FOIE or FOIE-GRAS is the duck’s fatty liver, from an overfed one that has fat drops inside. In the European Union it must weigh between 350 to 500 grams to be called FOIE-GRAS.
- MICUIT or TERRINE is the lightly boiled duck liver. Micuit, translated from french means lightly cooked, that is pasteurized, which helps the product to last longer. Micuit is usually served by slicing it fresh.
- PATÉ is a mix of three different products. It was also misnamed in Spain for many years as FOIE-GRAS. In France it is claimed as a mix of FOIE and different kinds of meat, but it’s always a substitute for the real FOIE. So the PATÉ isn’t the best product regarding quality. On top of the quality list stands proudly FOIE-GRAS, secondly MICUIT and the last on the list would be the PATÉ.
