The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-02-07
THE PATE DE F0IE GRAS.
HISTORY OF THIS DELICATE DISH
so POPULAR IN FRANCE.
Death of Its Greatest Maker-How the
Goose Livers Are Made Fat-Apocryphai
Story Of Duinas-The Famous Pies Of
Strasburg-Giving Them n sos,l.


Goose Livers Are Made Fat-Apocryphal
Story Of Duinss-The Famous Pies Of
strasburg-Giving Them sos,l
At Colmar, in Alsace, died in his list
year a worthy bourgeois named Jean
Mangold, who, in the opinion of all save
some members of the medical profession,
deserved well, not only of his own coun.
try, but of the whole world. Colmar,
the antique Columbaria of the Romans,
next to Strasburg, is unsurpassed for the
fabrication of "pates de foie gras." The
friends of the late NJ. Mangold, indeed,
who was for many years the leading
pastry cook at Colmar, claim that his
pies were even superior to those made at
Strasburg NJ. Mangold was a poet to
boot, and composed large number of
local idyls, satires, vaudevilles and songs
for music. But 1t will be with his pies,
and not with his poems in his hand that
he will probably go down to postesity.
1t might be desirable in the outset to
stigmatize as wholly apocryphal the story
to which Alexandra Dumas the elder, in
his "Dictionnaire de Cuisine" has given
currency as to the horrible tortures in
f1icted on the Alsatian geese in order to
fatten their livers to the degree required
by the pastry cooks. Starting with the
postulate that the liver of the bird can
only be fattened by the tumefaction of
that organ, and that for pie making pur-
poses the goose livers should be ten or
twelve times the normal size, the author
of Monte Cristo" goes ON to say that
the wretched bipeds are nailed by their
web feet to boards, that their eyes are
put out, and that they are necessarily
stuffed with pounded nuts and deprived
of water.
STUFFING THE LIVE BIRDS.
Another alarmist, improving on Alex.
andre Dumas, asserts that the nailed
down geese are placed before raging
fire and allowed to drink as much water
as they like, thus leading to enlarge
ment of the liver. AS matter of fact.
the birds, like capons and turkeys, are
no doubt systematically crammed,
usually with paste made of Indian
corn and millet; but there is no more
truth in the wild stories of the nailed
down feet, the binding anu the semi
roasting in front of an ardent fire than
there is in the tales that turtle soup is
made of conger eel and the sauce called
soy from cockroaches.
Toulouse, in the south of France, Ruff
fec, in the Charente and Nerac, in the
Bordelais, have in modern times, rivaled
Strasburg and Colmar in the making of
"pates de foie gras;" and there are culin-
airy antiquaries who maintain that
pasties Of fatted goose Iivers are a
Gallo-Roman survival of Apician origin.
The mode of fattening the geese was
somewhat cruel. The birds were cooped
in solitary confinement in very narrow
cages; three times day they were
gorged with maize, and, on the twenty
second day of cramming, a spoonful of
poppy oil was added to the corn; water
was freely given them, but it was always
mixed with sweet wort from the
brewery. At the end of forty-two days
the goose became SO fat as to be in dan
ger of suffocation and was therefore
killed. Its proper weight should then be
about sixteen pounds, out of which the
liver should weigh thirty-two ounces.
Another quicker but more eqnivocal way
OF fattenlng the geese was to mix anti
mony with the farinaceous paste with
which the birds were crammed.
HOW TO MAKE THE PIE.
At Strasburg the construction of pate
is serious and even solemn affair. Six
fattened livers are the ordinary pabulum
for pie; they must first be washed In |
many waters and then parboiled, and are
next scrupulously trimmed so as to free |
them from all fbrous substance and from |
any matter approaching bitterness in
flavor. Each liver is then cut in two, |
and, out Of the dozen, three are chosen |
to be beaten in mortar and passed |
through sieve with bacon, shalots, |
parsley and mushrooms, SO as to make |
farce, or forcemeat, which is boiled, |
and forms the basis of the pie. The other |
half Gvers are then larded with the finest
Perigord truflles, cut in the shape of
dice. and the contents of the pie are made |
to consist of layers of liver, truffles and |
forcemeat. Two hours are sufficient to |
bake this dainty dish, fit to be set before
a whole congress Of kings and emperors
When the pie is withdrawn from the
oven the top crust should be delicately |
lifted and large glass of Madeira poured
into the interior. Then it should be her.
metically closed, SO as to be fit to be at
once packed and dispatched to the utter
most ends of the earth.
1t remains, however, to show how
these famous pies came TO be made at
and Colmar at all. Only 100
S.ti o hdNC Ciupocu SluCe llle fToncn
military governor of the province of
Alsace, Marshal de Contades, brought
with him to Strasburg as cook Nor
man by the name of Close Alsace was
already remarkable for it "terrines" of
fat goose livers, which were preserved in
earthen pipkins with layer of clarified
butter under the cover. They were
somewhat rudely prepared, and lacked
one supreme accessory. The artistic
Close practically exclaimed, "Pipkin,
thou shalt become pie!" He discarded
the earthen jar and Imprisoned the rich
ivers in a casket Of pie crust. The body
IS there" continued the enthusiastic
chef, I'VE must now give it soul;" and
ne found a spiritual element for his pie
n the exciting perfume of the Peri
5ordian truffie. Close, the Norman, must
be considered as the inventor
u the Strasburg pie. = London Daily