The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-06-14
IHE PATE DE- FOE CRAS
low Most Famous of French
DelicacieS is Produced.
HERE TURKEY IS SCORNED.

The Thrty-five Pound Goose and Its
Four Pound Liver-The Peasant
Makes Four Dollars Apiece Out of
tlim-Goose Grease to Replace
Cooking Butter.
The Toulouse goose is one of the
standby of the French peasant. Where
he ordinary domestic goose averages
rom seven to eight pounds the weight
If the Toulouse goose varies between
Is and % pounds in the normal state
and between &c pounds and 80 pounds
after they are scientifically fattened
cor their ivers' 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-
louse goose leads free and sociable
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 Decem.
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 d-accTding to it's di-
costing capacity. 1t is admitted that
goose can thus digest considerably
| over a quart of corn per day during
about five weeks, and these are those
who actually do digest OVER so quarts
in the IS days. Som| farmers give
soup, others milk, and some add even
little ammonia. Sulphide of anti
mony also favors Attening; but it Is
used only by tbn great experts, being
dangerous.
During a" Chis time the bird is
scarcely ahze to move. Every peasant
child knews when the fattening is fin
isheS 1t is when the tail spreads
out like fan, the tail feathers no
longer touching each other. Then it is
time to sell the goose for its liver.
One of these fattened birds is sold
1t the Toulouse goose market 1t brings
from 50 to $3.50, while phenomenons
| II fattening that weigh up to IS pounds
tell as hight as Sc or 81. The Nvers
sometimes grow to enormous size.
| There have been prize winners that
have weighed nearly five pounds Liv-
ers weighing four and half pounds
are not particularly rare. The aver
age weight, perhaps, is sometimes un-
Ter three pounds.
The potting establishments of Tou-
louise and Nerac pay the peasant or
the goose-market speculatOr from 30
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
sells 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 it, 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 truffles are also thrown in,
and the terrine is cooked during two
hours in a 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 a mixture of melted butter and
| gcose-greese. This hardens and pre-
serves the whole. Two days later the
terrfne de foie-gras is good to eat,
and when properly made it keeps al
most fndeffnitely-so long, indeed, as
to permit It to be sent out from Tou-
louise and Strasbourg to all parts OF
the world
|