Posts Tagged ‘France’
Do You Like Foie Gras
image via wikipedia
The gourmet food called Foie Gras is the French word for fatty liver. While some of this is made with goose liver, most of what is produced is from ducks. This is one meat product that a chef cannot produce from preparing a duck liver they have already received. It must be made by the ducks themselves.
In France the ducks are forced feed corn to produce a fatty liver that has become a very well known French delicacy. The flavor of this dish is described by food connoisseurs as very rich with a delicate and butter taste to it.
The process of force feeding an animal is very controversial and illegal in some countries of the world, but it has a long history. It stretches back to the Egyptians in around 2500 BC when large birds were being domesticated as a food source. The force feeding of these birds was to fatty them up in general and not just for the liver.
The Romans are the ones that brought this type of food to Europe where it is mentioned in the historical records in 1 AD. With the fall of the Roman Empire came the disappearance of this food source from being common place. It reappeared amongst the Jewish community in the 16th century as the byproduct to the production of Yiddish. This was cooking grease and oils produced by fatting up birds by force feeding them. This replaced the olive oils and sesame oils that the Jewish community used in the Middle East.
This fatting up of the birds is a natural event that does occur in nature before the long migration they participate in every year. Some ducks have been recorded to nearly double their weight before the winter migration begins, which produces this French delicacy.
Today 96% of all Foie Gras is produced from duck livers, with over 75% of its production coming from France. This delicacy is usually served whole, but there are some recipes that serve it in pieces or sliced up.
As a bit of a food gourmet, my preference runs to Russian Caviar and this is a sub group of gourmet foods all its own. You can read all about caviar at www.GourmetFoodBlog.com.
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Tags: Animal rights, California, Foie Gras, Food, Force-feeding, France, French language, Middle East
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Oct 17th, 2011
