Foie Gras

                I had never even heard of foie gras until my AP LA teacher told me about it and said that it might be interesting to blog about.  Foie gras is made from the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened.  In many places and especially in France, foie gras is made from the liver of goose or duck that has been fattened by force-feeding through a feeding tube.  It is considered inhumane and in many countries that process has been banned or laws have been set to regulate how it is done.  Foie gras dates as far back as 2500 BC, when ancient Egyptians force-fed their birds to fatten them up for eating. 
                I looked up an interesting radio episode online and if you have time to listen to it, please do.  It talks all about foie gras and what a person in Spain did to naturally make foie gras.  Eduardo Sousa said to make foie gras naturally, you have to make the bird feel as if it is free and you can’t feed personally feed them.  A goose will instinctively eat a lot when it senses that winter is coming and that will fatten it up.  Eduardo Sousa uses that instinct to his advantage and the geese eat a lot by themselves and all he has to do it butcher them when they are ready.  A reporter noticed how massive the birds were and he tried the foie gras and said it was the best thing ever and saying that it was the best foie gras he has ever tried would just cheapen how it actually tasted.  With that comment it was obvious that the foie gras was incredibly good.  The chef also didn’t add any salt or pepper to add flavor because the goose liver didn’t need it.  The geese had been grazing in several different fields of food and one of them was mustard seed that provided excellent flavor naturally.  It was like Eduardo Sousa was the chef in the field who was cultivating the geese to taste like what they ate and all the chef in the kitchen had to do was cook it. 
                I still would never like to try goose or duck liver because it doesn’t sound appealing to me, but I like that there is now a natural and bird-safe way to make it.  While it may seem that we don’t and shouldn’t care what happens to the animals that we eat when they are being prepared to be eaten, it always makes a difference to know that the animal was treated well and enjoyed their life before being turned into the delicious food that they were meant to be.