Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-01-26

w6ngu and flesh cut from the carcass az
"conft' of goose, the most usual meat
food of the south OF France.
Pressed into an earthenware pol the
''conft dole Is half cooked; then hot
melted goose grease Is poured over the
whole. filing the empty spaces hermetical-
~ and sealing the top with a thick layer
of pure white g-rease-exactly like a terrine
of foie gras. All through the year the
peasants turn to the ''conft' pots when
other meat is lacking. While in the
iSitchen goose grease takes the place OF
butter.
Up till it's eighteenth month the Toulouse
goose leads its free and sociable outdoor
life. junketing through the fields for food
and sure 10 find n supplement- in the
barnyard on returning in the evening with
the pigs and sheep. Farmers who go I'D
for .magnified pieces" products of inten-
sive fattening, even let the goose roam free
until ii has reached its second year. Now.
as there are regularly six females for each
male, and as they begin laying egg at six
months. the egg product is seen TO be con-
siderable, while the five feathers ac-
count runs up to something respectable.
The work OF fattenIng is taken in hand
In the first cool days of autumn, and It
continues during December and January.
The first part, called putting on flesh. Is
simple and even luxurious. 1t consists In
cooping the goose and giving IL all tho
Indian corn that 1t will eat, having first
care to soak the corn I'm water. The coop
is OF decent size, permitting several geese
to bear each other company. and 1t is well
lighted. Nothing, therefore. warns the
lucklesS bird of the tremendous chanGe
that threatens II.
The change comes. Suddenly, one morn
Ing, the ~astonished biped finds Itself taken
up and cooped in a cage so narrow that
1t cannot move: while its floor is so thickly
strewn with straw that 1t sinks into 1t up
TO the breast, Also 1t is quite dark-and
silent as the grave.
Where is the rest OF the pusng' ask
the astonished bird. II eanno even hea.
them"
In Complete S~ecIusion.
Nobody The seclusion Is COM
plete and wilful; because experience shows
that when even the faintest cacklings and
hissings from the barnyard reach the fat
tening goose's ears. It's spirit Is troubled
and its digestion is disturbed.
This digestion is to be something terrific.
Am / to have nothing to eat?" at first
inquiries the goose. oh, yes; oh, yes, In one.
sense yes, and In another, no. You are not
going to eat In the vulgar way of speak
ing. but you are going to digest for surel
The farmer comes and takes the goose
between his knees. He forces It's beak open
with a unnei Then he pours In a handful
of Indian corn. With a short round stick
he rams 1t down-exactly like the loading
OF a gun.
There is no use in resisting. The farmer
has a good grip. and he proceeds to mas
sage the load OF corn from the esophagus
down, down the long neck to the crop.
Then he pours another handful into the
funnel. rams the load home and again pro-
ceeds with the massage. And so on. And
so on. When he quits the bird is so we'll
stuffed" that its crop is distended and Its
long neck full of corn up to the very beak.
Loads" the Bird Thrice Daily.
Two or three times a day the farmer
loads the bird. according to its digestive
capacity. 1t Is admitted that a Toulouse
goose can thus digest considerably over a
quart of corn per day during five weeks,
and there are commonly geese that
do digest their fifty quarts In the thirty
five days. This corn is not soaked. but to
facilitate it's digestion a little water Is
given to the goose at times. Often salt or
corn meal Is added to it, Some farmers
give soup, others milk. and some add even
a trifie Of ammonia. Sulphide of antirnony
also W. fattening; but. being danger
Gus, IL Is used only by the greatest experts.
There is also a "stuffing machine now
used by many up 20 date peasants who
nave given up using Indian corn in kernels.
In principle 1t Is very like a sausage stuff
er, and the sausage-like rolls of soft mat
ter which IL forces into the birds ESQ
phagus are composed Of a mixture OF corn
meal, barley meal. wheat and buckwheat
-four, bran and mashed potatoes. 's
The bird does not move during all this
period. Every child knows when the fat
tening Is perfect. AS / have already indi-
Gated, II Is when the tail spreads out like q
fan. the tail feathers being no longer
able to touch each other by pressure OF
fat. Then II Is time to kill the goose for
its liver.
When these intensively fattened geese are
sold alive at the Toulous goose market
they bring from So to $3.50 apiece as they
stand, alive: while 'p-henomenons'' Of fat
tening that weigh up to their thirty-five
pounds sell as high as IS and ~ apiece.
Livers Grow to Enormous Size.
Their livers sometimes grow to an enor-
NOUS size. Prize-winning livers, hot from
the goose, nave weighed nearly FIVE
pounds. Livers weighing from 4 to "
pounds are not at all rare in the Toulouse
market. Their average weight Is. perhaps,
something under three pounds.
Certainly 1t is enlargement Of the liver.
l had a little dog once who died of II, and
doubtless the goose would die OF 1t were
he or she not killed at the right moment.
AS ii ish, the liver Is affirmed to be healthy
and sweet, and certainly Ii Is a luscious
product!
IHe WOTlu IdTneQ pOttlflS eSla biLSniIseulH
Of Toulouse and Nerae pay the peasants or
the goose market Speculation from 30 cents
to 60 cents per pound for these 'foies-gras"
fat ~liyers), according to their volume and
their witnesses. One OF the great chiefs Of
Paris, who Is down here looking over the
inarket-it Is Matrin, once the Vanderbilt
$40, 900 cook, and now proprietor of his own
palatial establishment at the Porte Mafllot
In Parfs-has been telling me how they
prepare them for the terrine OF foie-graS.
The fresh liver Is first parboiled In y
linen casing. Then II Is skinned. and all
the red parts are cut out. putting aside
the white nutty parts. With the debris .
farce" or filling Is made. which. after be-
Ing strained and seasoned, must be poured
Into the terrine (earthen dish) over the
white hunks of goose liver. Big black
truffes are also thrown I'm. and the whole
Is cooked during two hours In q balm
marie. 1t is allowed to stand. The next
day the juice is poured out; and into its
spaces and over the top Of the whole Is
poured a mixture OF melted butter and
goose to preserve 1t.
Keeps Almost Indefinitely.
WI days later the terrine of foie-gras Is
good to eat: and III II has been properly
prepared II keeps almost indefinitely, long
enough, indeed, to permit 1t to be sent
from Toulouse and Strasburg to all parts
of the world.
And the pate de foie-gras? That delicious
neltcacy aypr which Erauch huSha uda