Heston Blumenthal Meat Fruit Recipe (Simplified for Kitchen Heroes)
This is the simplest set of instructions you’ll ever find to make Meat Fruit. Heston Blumenthal makes it with foie gras and chicken livers, but advises home cooks to use just chicken livers.
The original recipe in The Guardian can be found here. This recipe make ~7 Meat Fruits.
Equipment Required
Food Thermometer (measure temperature)
Food Scale (measure mass)
Stick Blender (any blender really)
Water Bath / Bain-marie (easily improvised in oven)
6cm diameter half-dome silicone mould (for spheres)
Equipment Checklist
Stove
Fridge and Freezer
Oven
Oven Tray
Loaf Pan (Terrine)
Sieve
Bowls
Saucepan
Spatula
Chopping Board
Cling Wrap
Skewers
Chicken Liver Parfait Recipe (UPDATED!)
2 red onions, chopped
1 heaped teaspoon garlic, minced
50mL Fortified Wine (Tawny OR Sherry OR Apera OR Boronia Marsala All’Uovo)
20g table salt
400g chicken livers, chopped
5 eggs
300g butter, melted
Stove
Saucepan
Spatula
Fry red onions, garlic and a teaspoon of butter in a saucepan, stir no burning. When brown, add fortified wine then reduce and simmer for ~5 minutes. Remove contents into a bowl.
Oven
Oven Tray
Preheat the oven to 100'C. Fill a water bath — an oven tray with water in it — and place in the oven.
Stove
Saucepan
Spatula
Sprinkle the table salt over the chopped livers and fry with a teaspoon of butter in the same saucepan, stir no burning. Liver is ready when slightly brown. Crack in the eggs and add remaining butter and onion garlic mix into the pan. Simmer while stirring mixture for ~5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Stick Blender OR Blender
Sieve
Spatula
Blitz all ingredients with stick blender or blender until smooth. Pass mixture through sieve. This mixture is now a parfait.
Loaf Pan OR Terrine
Water Bath
Oven
Spatula
Food Thermometer
Pour into loaf pan and place in water bath, then cover water bath with aluminium foil. Cook parfait until temperature in the centre reaches ~65'C.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Mandarin Jelly Recipe (UPDATED!)
20g leaf gelatine (1 packet)
500g mandarin juice OR orange juice, without pulp
80g glucose
2–3 drops of orange food colouring
Stove
Saucepan
Bowl
Place all gelatine in cold water to soften, 5–10 minutes. Gently heat mandarin juice and glucose in saucepan to combine. Add softened gelatine, stir well until dissolved. Remove from heat and add mandarin oil, stir well. Add food colouring until you’re happy with orange colour.
Allow to cool in fridge until required.
To Make Meat Fruits:
6cm diameter half-dome silicone mould
Spatula
Cling Wrap
Chopping Board
Skewers
Fill half-dome moulds with parfait, level off tops so they’re flat, cover with cling wrap. Put in freezer until completely frozen.
Gently pop out parfait half-domes. Place on board with flat sides facing up. Join two halves together and compress using a square of cling wrap. Wrap well and place back in the freezer until required.
Gently push a wooden skewer into the middle of the rounded surface and re-wrap until all parfait balls are complete.
Gently melt mandarin jelly in saucepan and cool to room temperature. Remove cling wrap and dip each ball of parfait into the jelly and stand the skewers up. Improvised stand ideas:
Water bottles (What I used).
Egg cartons.
Tissue boxes.
Polystyrene foam.
Place in the fridge for a minute, then repeat the dipping process.
Gently remove the skewers and place the balls onto individual cling wrap. Wrap and keep in freezer, or leave in the fridge to defrost.
Once defrosted, they are ready to serve. Gently push the top of the ball using your thumb to slightly flatten the sphere. Place a stalk and leaf where the skewer hole was to complete the mandarin Meat Fruit.
Footnotes — Ingredients, Technique, Shopping List, Questions
1. Ingredients
Shallot & Red Onion
Shallot tastes onion-y and garlic-y. It’s delicious. Shallot is hard to find, and at most grocery stores is ~$12/kg. Red onion is common and ~$2/kg.
Garlic
Minced garlic from a jar is just like the garlic you peel and chop. I added more garlic to cover for the shallot.
Thyme & Aromatic Herbs
Sadly, most aromatics are lost on most people. Especially in a long cooking process. Had you used oregano, rosemary, basil, dill, marjoram or tarragon, nobody would even notice the difference.
Booze — Dry Madeira, Ruby Port, White Port, Brandy & Tawny Port
The original recipe calls for half a litre of booze — to be reduced to a tablespoon. Such a waste for little reward. Simply burn off the alcohol from a cheap tawny, and you have the same great flavours with 100% less pretentiousness.
Chicken Liver
Cheap, ~$4/kg. Might try duck liver next time, it’s just a few bucks more.
Leaf Gelatine
The original recipe uses far too much leaf gelatine, asking for 2 packets. Even I used too much — you could easily use just half of 1 packet.
Mandarin Puree & Mandarin / Orange Juice
Juice ~5 mandarins for required liquid, or simply swap out for orange juice. Don’t puree whole fruit because the peel and pith (white sponge bit) can be quite bitter.
Mandarin Oil
I couldn’t find it online, and it might as well not exist. Most cake and confectionery suppliers stock only Orange Oil, which I used instead. I prefer the jelly without it. If keen for that citrus oil flavour, add in some finely chopped mandarin peel.
Paprika Extract
Impossible to find a stockist of Paprika Extract but the thing is it’s used for colouring, not flavour. It’s made from capsicums. Simply use food colouring instead. The more red, the deeper the orange.
Glucose
Thickener, sweetener, and retains moisture. Stocked in most supermarkets in the cake section.
2. Technique
Notes
- Frozen parfait balls melt surprisingly fast, so handle quickly and delicately.
- Frozen parfait is pliable — it’s possible to not use the silicone mould and still make nice balls of parfait using just a bit of cling wrap.
- The most challenging part of this recipe is the timing between the liquid jelly being liquid, dipping the parfait balls and leaving it to set. The jelly may seem too runny to you, or too thick/solid. It’s a temperature thing, so you’ll have to adjust accordingly.
- You will make an epic mess if you don’t clean up as you go.
- You don’t need a Fine Sieve — just a regular sieve will do for super smooth parfait.
3. Shopping List
Supermarket (Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, IGA):
Minced Garlic — $1.30
Table Salt — $1.00
Eggs — $3.00
Butter — $1.90
Leaf Gelatine — $5.00
Glucose — $4.60
Food Colouring — $4.00
Skewers: $3.00
Fruit and Veg Market:
Red Onions — $2.00
Mandarins — $4.00
Butcher:
Chicken Livers — $2.00
Bottle Shop (Liquorland, BWS, First Choice, Dan Murphy’s, Cellarbrations, Thirsty Camel):
Fortified Wine — $5.00
*** Ingredients = $36.80. Yields 7 Meat Fruits. ***
Online:
6cm Half-Dome Silicone Mould — $15.00
Other (Online, Shopping Mall/Centre, Homemaker, K Mart, Big W, Target):
Loaf Pan — $15.00
Sieve — $5.00
Spatula — $2.00
Food Thermometer — $10.00
Digital Scale — $10.00
Stick Blender — $90.00
4. Questions
So, what does it taste like?
It’s lovely! The chicken liver pate is very smooth and hearty. The jelly is nice, but doesn’t spread as well.
I used French bread because sourdough sucks.
Why make meat fruit?
It’s the signature dish at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal @ Crown Casino, Southbank, Melbourne Victoria Australia. As of 2017, it’s ~$38 per serve. Let’s see what the fuss is about!
Is it worth the hype?
The downside to getting what you want is getting what you once wanted. I prefer the hype.
For the extended recipe with notes check out: Heston Blumenthal Meat Fruit Recipe UPDATED!
