The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-05-17
THE PATE DE- FO|E CRAS
How Most Famous of French
DelicacieS is Produced.
HERE TURKEY ISSCORNED.

/
rhe Thrty-five Pound Goose and Its
| Four Pound Liver-The Peasant
Makes Four Dollars Apiece Out OF
| Him-Goose Grease to Replace
/ Cooking Butter.
The Toulouse goose is one of the
standby of the French peasant. Wherc
he ordinary domestic goose averages
rom seven to eight pounds the weight
# the Toulouse goose varies between
q and % pounds in the normal state
and between 26 pounds and 81 pounds
after they are scientifically fattened
Cor their livers' sake.
During the first eighteen months Of
their lives they are let to wander and
feed at their own sweet will, like pigs
or sheep, each troop tended by little
boy or girl; and the impression that
they are not really birds, but kind
OF two-legged animal, is all the strong
.r when you see them taken with the
sheep, at shearing time, for plucking
| Up till it's eighteenth month, the Tou-
louise goose leads a free and sociabls
| outdoor life, junketing through the
| fields for food and sure to find sup
plement' in the barnyard Farmers
who go in for magnificent pieces, the
products of intensive fattening, let the
goose roam free until it has even
| reached it's second year.
| The work Of fattening is then taken
In hand in the first cool days of au-
| tumn and it continues during Deem
Der and January. The first part. call
ed flesh building, is simple. 1t con-
sists in nothing but giving the geese
all the Indian corn they will eat, hav-
| ing care to first soak it in water.
Two or three times day the farm
er loads the bird-accoSding to it's d.
costing capacity 1t is admitted that
| goose can thus digest considerably
| over quart of corn per day during
about five weeks, and these are those
who actually do digest ovsr so quarts
| in the IS days. SOM farmers give
soup, others milk, and some add even
2 little ammonia. 6ulphide of anti
mony also favors attening; but it is
used only by tbr great experts, being
| dangerous.
During ." CHS time the bird is
scarcely ahse to move. Every peasant
child kpcws when the fattening is fln-
| ishes, 1t is when the tail spreads
out like fan, the tail feathers no
longer touching each other. Then it is
time to SELF the goose for it's liver.
One of these fattened birds is sold
at the Toulouse goose market 1t brings
! from So to $3.50, while phenomenons
! II fattening that weigh I'D to So pounds
Tell as hight as Sc or 81. The Mvers
Sometimes grow to enormous size
There have been prize winners that
have weighed nearly five pounds. Liy-
| ers weighing four and half pounds
are not particularly rare. The aver
| age weight, perhaps, is sometimes I'M
der three pounds.
| The potting establishments of Tou-
louise and Nerac pay the peasant or
| the goose-market Spectator from 80
cents to 60 cents per pound for those
''foies-gras" ("fat livers,'') according
! to their volume and whiteness One
Of the great chefs of paris-he is Wat
| in, once the Vanderbilt $4,000. cook,
cells how they prepare them for the
Terrine de Foie-gras. The fresh liver
is first skinned Then all the red
parts are cut out Of 1t, keeping only
the white nutty parts. With the debris
farce" or filling, is made, which,
| after it is strained and seasoned, must
be poured into the terrine, or earthen
dish over the white chunks of liver.
Big black truff1es are also thrown in,
and the terrine is cooked during two
hours in bain-marie.
Then it is allowed to stand The
next day the juice is poured out and
into it's spaces and over the top is
poured mixture of melted butter and
goose-greese. This hardens and pre-
serves the whole. Two days later the
terrine de foie-gras is good to eat.
and when properly made it keeps al
most indefnitely-so long, indeed, as
to permit it to be sent out from Tou-
louise and Strasbourg to all parts of
the world.