Foie Gras...Diseased Goose Liver Foie Gras...See How It's Made. Still Want to Eat it? Foie gras, from the French, means fat liver and pate is a "paste" made of a fat liver, specifically goose or duck liver. As good as it may be, is it worth the cruelty that goes into its production? To fatten up a goose liver, the bird is confined in such a way that its head protrudes through the bars of a restraining pen and it is force fed a mixture of corn mash several times a day. Obviously it is an unnatural, painful and stressful experience for the bird and often results in heroic efforts by the bird to regurgitate the fluid that has been forced down its throat. Gavage, the French word for forced feeding, produces a liver six to ten times normal size and typically presses on the lungs, making normal breathing more difficult. The Videos Tell the Story There is no shortage of videos, most of them taken undercover by animal welfare groups, and four have been selected to share below.

The one immediately below is from PETA, narrated by Kate Winslet, and is one of the best at showing what a duck or goose is put through to bring a diseased liver to the elites dining table. If anyone should order goose liver, just know what it is that is being eaten and remember the scenes in these videos. Regarding the health issues of consuming an extremely fatty liver, there is a growing belief that it could be a cause of amyloidosis or the deposition of amyloid protein in various organs however it has yet to be confirmed. Due to the cruelty of force feeding, the production and sale of pate has been banned in many countries. To date the production of force-fed goose liver is only allowed in five European countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Spain and Hungary). Turkey and Israel have also banned the force feeding of animals. In the U.S., banning the force feeding of animals is a decision of each state. California led the way by banning the force feeding of animals for the purpose of enlarging the liver as well as selling products that are produced by that method. Unfortunately, politics and lobbyists succeeded in buying off enough legislators and judges that California has reversed the ban and some restaurants resumed selling it.

According to the Huffington Post, we can thank U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California. Chicago banned the sale of foie gras beut later reversed the ban since they could not or would not enforce the ban. Mayor Richard Daley reportedly called the ban the silliest law the city council has ever passed. Oh well, if there's a wrong side of any issue, Daley will be there; it's the Chicago way. The book, Foie Gras Wars, shown above is a good read on the culinary wars that erupted in Chicago when they tried to ban the cruel delicacy. Click on the book's image to review it or buy it. Custom Search The first video below is from Farm Sanctuary and documents production in Canada, the same lovely country that still allows the clubbing death of baby harp seals. It can be found on the web at URL . The second video is from the Animal Protection and Rescue League and documents their investigative findings at the Hudson Valley Foie Gras farm. This operation is not an anomaly; it is representative of the entire industry. Watch "Foie Gras: A Decade of Cruelty Exposed" and then make your voice heard to stop this horrible practice.

There used to be a video in this spot produced by Farm Sanctuary protesting Amazon.com selling foie Gras and urging everyone to call and ask them to stop selling the product. Youtube took the video down and Amazon is still selling livers from tortured geese. So much for free speech and public protest. Now after watching those videos, it’s time to be uplifted, filled with hope and see that there is a better way. See, foie gras in itself isn't bad, it's the cruelty of the gavage and confinement that are bad. Watch Don Barber, a well known chef and scholar who is passionate about sustainable, humane food sources, in the following TED video and see how life can be wonderful for a goose when raised in a proper relationship with nature by a farmer who cares and loves his birds. Chef Barber's talk, "A Foie Gras Parable, is 20 minutes long but well worth the time, watch it and feel good about the future of food. There is a better way than the mega factory farms of today that are poisoning our health and environment. After watching the videos, it will be time to make a personal choice to eat or not to eat gavage produced foie gras.

There is a better way and consumers have the power to bring about change that will result in a humane goose liver on the menu. Eduardo Sousa in the Don Barber video above has proven it. The Nasty Bits: Duck Liver Recipe | Serious Eats The Nasty Bits: Duck Liver Recipe All Nasty Bits recipes » Greenmarket farmers' markets in New York City are my favorite new place to hunt for offal. You may not think of your farmers' market as a source for nose-to-tail cuts, yet these days the meat vendors are showing up in full force. Best of all, you never know what you might find in one of their coolers. Over the past year, I've come across cuts of offal at farmers' markets that I haven't even found at sustainable or ethnic butcher shops. Why I was surprised to see cartons of livers and hearts in the coolers at the farmers' markets, I don't know. By the time animals arrive at a butcher shop, they'll have passed through plants where some percentage of the offal is discarded in an effort to expedite the process and keep the facilities clean.

The farmers who slaughter as well as butcher, on the other hand, often take the time to save the offal from their animals. Though not all farmers possess the facilities and legal certification, some do have their own abattoirs on site. Even those who do not own their own abattoirs will send their animals to be slaughtered at places where the offal can be reserved. On a Saturday morning at the Borough Hall Greenmarket in Brooklyn, I chatted with a turkey farmer who carried bags of turkey necks . In the adjacent stand, a pastured poultry farmer sold some of the most pristine livers I'd ever seen: plump and dry, with a matte gloss on the surface. Livers that you find in your grocery store often have a slickness to their surface and a slightly rank odor. These livers, on the other hand, smelled distinctly sweet. Pairing Duck Liver with Produce If you've only experienced the creaminess of chicken liver , try to imagine the indulgence of duck liver. Its texture, though a far cry from foie gras, approaches the richness of something that tastes too good to be a humble cut of offal sold for a pittance.

But cheap and delicious it is, and if you're strolling by the farmers' market, then you may as well pick up seasonal produce to pair with your livers. Rhubarb, with its tart flavor, cuts through the fattiness of duck liver. Cherries, which vary from tart to sweet, add more juice and sweetness to the sauce. All livers pair well with acidic sauces, many of which are made with reductions of vinegar . Using fruit instead of vinegar adds more body and texture to the dish. Rhubarb is showing up more and more on restaurant menus as a complement to savory dishes, but given the ease of its preparation, it's also an ideal vegetable with which to experiment at home. For an impromptu sauce to go along with my sautéed duck livers, I cut up the rhubarb and cherries and placed them into a small saucepan along with a few spoonfuls of sugar. In twenty minutes the rhubarb and cherries had broken down into a beautiful sanguine mass, akin to compote, with a flavor that puckered, then mellowed in my mouth.

If you happen to have a fig or well-aged balsamic at home, you can finish the sauce with a splash of the vinegar. Cook in Plenty of Fat Finally, though I probably say this at least once a month, sautéing your livers on a very hot cast iron skillet is an ideal way to achieve a crispy surface while retaining a creamy interior that's barely cooked through. For duck liver, which is more delicate than calf's, I like to roughly chop the livers into 1-inch segments so that the surface of the livers do not have a chance to toughen. The livers should be cooked in plenty of butter for ultimate richness and flavor, though if you happen to have duck fat on hand, then cooking the livers in the fat will intensify the ducky flavor of the organs. Treading in a sea of red, the duck livers exude their own, fatty juices onto the plate. Liver and compote mingle; their union is thrilling and luscious. About the author: Chichi Wang took her degree in philosophy, but decided that writing about food would be much more fun than writing about Plato.

She firmly believes in all things offal, the importance of reading great books, and the necessity of three-hour meals. If she were ever to get a tattoo, it would say "Fat is flavor." Visit her blog, The Offal Cook . Sautéed Duck Livers with Rhubarb and Cherry Sauce About the author: Chichi Wang took her degree in philosophy, but decided that writing about food would be much more fun than writing about Plato. She firmly believes in all things offal, the importance of reading great books, and the necessity of three-hour meals. If she were ever to get a tattoo, it would say "Fat is flavor." Visit her blog, The Offal Cook .

Serious Eats The Nasty Bits: Duck Liver Recipe Text Only 4 to 6 duck livers A few tablespoons cornstarch or flour for coating the livers 1/2 teaspoon of salt, or to taste Pepper to taste 3 tablespoons of butter or duck fat For the sauce 1/2 pound dark red cherries, either Bing or another variety 1/2 pound rhubarb, about 4 to 5 stalks 1/4 cup sugar, or to taste 1 teaspoon fig balsamic vinegar, optional Directions 1. To make the sauce: Rinse the cherries and rhubarb in cold water. Chop the stalks of rhubarb into 1/4-inch slices. Remove the pits from the cherries and chop into halves. Place the rhubarb and the cherries in a small saucepan, along with the sugar. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. The sauce should be like compote: fleshy and soft, with a few pieces of cherry still intact. Depending on the tartness of your cherries, you may need to add a bit more sugar. If desired, add a splash of vinegar at the end.

The sauce may be made in advance and set aside. 2. History Of Foie Gras | Goose and Duck Liver | Gourmet Food History Of Foie Gras Log in to rate this item. A Short History of Foie Gras To put it simply, Foie Gras is literally goose or duck liver . The name actually means 'fatty liver' in French. Its origins date all the way back to the ancient Egyptians, who noticed their geese would eat large amounts of food during the winter, which resulted in their livers expanding. The Egyptians soon began eating goose liver, taking it with them as sustenance on their trips down the Nile River. Ancient drawing show Egyptian farmers force-feeding the geese, a pictorial testament of the early origins of foie gras production. By the first century B.C., the Romans force-fed their geese with figs, which made the Foie Gras richer and extra sweet. Soon, it became a prized delicacy, enjoyed by emperors and noble men. By the middle Ages, however, Foie Gras disappeared from sight.

It is believed that the Jews were the only ones who knew of its secret recipe, since it is one of the few types of meat that isn't restricted by their religion. Eventually Foie Gras returned to the public scene when French chef Jean-Pierre Clause revived the recipe and perfected it into a royal dish. Thus, foie gras went from obscure to renowned throughout Europe, becoming a favorite of artists, including the great writer Alexander Dumas, and Italian composer Rossini. The King of France, Louis XVI, once proclaimed Foie Gras as "The Dish of Kings." Throughout the 20th century, Foie Gras was most predominantly produced in France, with the exception of a few other European countries. A luxury item once only enjoyed in the most affluent of homes, foie gras became largely unavailable in the 1980s when the American government banned the import of raw poultry foods. This spurred American farmers to take matters into their own hands, and several foie gras farms started appearing in the New York - Hudson Valley area. Today, there are many options in the domestic market, and also Canada, which are of remarkably superior quality.

The introduction of mechanical feeders has also simplified and streamlined the process, making foie gras more available to the general public than ever before. However, most chefs and connoisseurs will agree that there is nothing like the smooth and buttery taste of fine Grade-A foie gras. Did You Find This Article Helpful? (0.00) # of Ratings: 0 Log in to rate this item. There are currently no ratings for this item. Be the first to rate this item. The duck chronicles - #4 Cooking offal @ Pork & Gin by Laura Jean King on May 18, 2012 As defined in Larousse Gastronomique, offal is “The edible internal parts and some extremities of an animal… it therefore includes the head, feet, and tail, and all of the main internal organs. The offal from poultry is called giblets.” While most people in the Western world wouldn’t have any qualms about throwing duck giblets into boiling water to make a stock or gravy, many would balk at the thought of eating a heart, liver or gizzard on their own. In reality, these parts of a duck are very enjoyable to eat and have a wonderful, pronounced flavor.

Think of them like meaty bacon – good as a garnish, good by themselves, and good as ingredients incorporated into recipes. All of these organs can be cooked and eaten any way you want. I decided to confit the heart and gizzards and make a pate de foie gras out of the liver… both dishes were so incredible that I can’t wait to do it again and, furthermore, can’t wait to try new recipes with them. What surprised me when beginning my giblet journey is there’s a whole subculture of chefs out there who are absolutely crazy about eating innards! Not too long ago, I agreed with the masses that these parts of a bird had no other purpose than to flavor a stock. I have now been converted to the other side and am eager to rush out and buy a bag of duck livers and gizzards as soon as possible. The recipes I’m about to share with you are decidedly inspirational. Besides knowing how good giblets can taste, this kind of cooking is truly a new frontier in eating both for me and many others out there because not a lot of people have discovered these ingredients yet. Cooking something new and wonderful gets me excited about cooking in general.

I hope these offal recipes and ideas have the same effect on you and yours! The duck innards most commonly eaten are the gizzards, heart and liver. The heart of a duck is very tiny – so petite, in fact, that my duck heart almost got lost in the shuffle when I was cooking it with the gizzards. Oh the gizzards, the divine morsels of meat that are much larger than the heart, come in pairs, and look like red lumps. Gizzards, before they hit your kitchen, are actually a digestive pouch in ducks acting as their second stomach. One of my ducks came with two gizzards, a heart, and a liver while my other duck came with none of the above. Make sure you buy a duck that includes the innards or you will be sorely disappointed. Gizzards and hearts can be cooked with the bird, deep fried, roasted, poached, boiled, ground, grilled, sautéed… you can really treat them both like any other meat… however, I gather that slow cooking and not over cooking produces the most desirable textures overall.

Confit hearts and gizzards The recipe I tried for my first experience eating the heart and gizzards of a duck (or of any animal, really) was Geisers de Canard Confits. Simply put, these are the gizzards marinated and then slowly cooked in duck fat. I decided to toss in the heart as well. It is said that the heart and gizzards tend to be chewy, but if you decide to poach them confit they can be as supple as any meat prepared in a confit. To start, thoroughly rinse off the meats and then the recipe prescribed marinating them for 24 hours in your favorite seasonings. I marinated mine in a little bowl with garlic powder, salt, and thyme but didn’t give it the prerequisite 24 hours. They ended up marinating only 2 or 3 hours, however it seemed sufficient. Heat your oven to 110°C (or 225°F). Before dunking them into the fat, rub away excess marinade with a paper towel and make sure they are as dry as you can get them.

A dry marinade with salt added in works well for confit because the salt continues to remove moisture from the meat as it’s marinating. The point of confit is to eventually remove all moisture from the duck so it can be properly preserved and stored. After situating your meat in the pot, fill it up with duck fat or olive oil until it just covers the top of the meat. Put it in the oven for 2-3 hours depending on how much meat you have cooking. A good way to test if the meat is cooked is to see if a knife can easily cut through it. Be careful, though! I suggest removing the gizzard or heart from the fat before poking it. I didn’t do this and hot grease spewed out everywhere on the counter and on me. Another thing to remember is if you want to cook hearts and gizzards, consider doing them in separate dishes because it won’t take the hearts nearly as long to be ready and you don’t want to overcook them. When they’re done cooking, like any confit, you can either eat them on the spot hot from the oven or go ahead and store them in air-tight containers surrounded by the fat they were cooked in.

To prepare them from storage just take them out, slice them up if you want, and sauté them in a hot pan for a few moments. While I ate mine immediately on their own- and by the way they are heavenly that way- I hear they’re great sautéed and used as a topper for salads too. Jaques Pepin suggests putting sautéed duck giblets onto an escarole salad dressed with a lovely vinaigrette of shallots, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, duck fat and olive oil. and over rice Another recipe I found that I’m eager to try is gizzards, hearts and mushrooms sautéed over rice. Put about 120ml (or ½ cup) of olive oil in a pan and get it hot. Pick out your favorite smaller mushrooms, halve, and throw them into a skillet along with about 900 grams (2 lbs) of gizzards and hearts. Cook over high heat until the mushrooms are browned, then add a cup of your favorite wine, port or sherry and reduce to medium heat.

Add some minced garlic, parsley, thyme or tarragon, and pepper and salt to taste. Continue to cook the mixture for 20-25 minutes, adding more of the wine, port or sherry as needed. If you don’t like rice, you could even put this dish over pasta too. If you like cream sauces, why not add a touch of cream towards the end? Soy sauce, lemon juice and onions would be another great combination to sauté giblets in. This way of cooking gizzards and hearts is very versatile, cost effective, and extremely easy to put together. Sous vide The very next recipe I’m going to make with gizzards when I can get my hands on about 10 of them is cooking them sous vide and confit at the same time! All you do is pack them in a single layer in a heavy duty freezer bag, surround them with liquid duck fat or olive oil, and after getting as much air out of the bag as possible you seal and submerge the bag into 60°C (or 135-140°F) water.

If you’re having a hard time submerging the gizzards, it means you have too much air still trapped in the bag. Try sealing most of the bag and sticking a straw in a little opening in one of the corners and suck out as much air as you can… I have done this and it works! Cook the gizzards for at least 4 hours. It isn’t hard to maintain this temperature over low heat and it’s perfectly safe with the freezer bag as they are made to sustain extreme temperatures. If you feel nervous at all, put a silicon mat in the bottom of your pot so your bag isn’t directly touching it. If you are patient and have the time, leave your gizzards in for up to 8 hours to get them even softer; after you’re done, you can eat them right away or add them to another dish. Another interesting recipe I saw for sous vide gizzards has a marinade of salt and thyme and a dressing to drizzle on them after they’re done cooking made of mushrooms sautéed in duck fat or olive oil, shallots, and garlic with some thyme and verjus.

… or super simple If all of this sounds too adventurous to you just yet, consider pan-frying the gizzards and hearts in a little butter or fat, mincing them up, and adding them to your traditional bread-stuffing recipe. There’s no shame in easing in! A purportedly natural cough remedy that is by some more prized than the duck breasts even, gizzards and hearts thankfully can be very cheap to purchase. Take a look at your local grocery and butcher and see what they offer you. Fortunately it has not caught on yet how delicious these organs are, so since there are less people seeking them out there are deals to be had. If you have a hard time finding them in an average grocery, check out an Asian market and see if they happen to carry them. Anywhere you get them they likely will come frozen, but this is perfectly fine since it is said that freezing the giblets does not hurt the flavor or texture. The liver The duck’s, of all the assorted edible livers, is considered to be one of the best you can eat, whether it’s been specially fattened or not. As with gizzards, there are many things one can do with them.

They can even be cooked and eaten whole, but I decided to do something a little less boring this time around; I decided to make a pate de foie gras out of mine. There are 3 terms you really should know to be able to intelligently discuss duck liver that are all related to one another and are sometimes confused: Foie Gras de Canard, Pate de Foie Gras de Canard, and Mousse Foie Gras de Canard. One of the most culturally French foods in the world, Foie Gras literally translates in English to “fatty liver.” While some are stringent in their opinions that the term foie gras can only apply to a properly fattened goose liver, Larousse Gastronomique lists duck along with goose and makes no special addendum when terming both fatty livers as foie gras. What is special about French foie gras is that it is legally mandated by French law that 80% of the content of pate de foie gras has to be made of goose or duck liver that has been specially fattened; the fattening process is said to create a more sweetly decadent, fattier liver.

Foie gras made outside of France can be made from goose or duck livers that are naturally fed, but technically the resulting dish cannot be considered a true foie gras. Some states in the United States even have laws against products derived from force-feeding animals and therefore have no true French-style foie gras at all. In America, it is said that 80% of the foie gras sold here is made from duck. Unless you travel to France, expect to get a less traditional type of foie gras made from a duck or just a mock foie gras made from a naturally fed duck or goose liver… or both. Foie gras de canard, sometimes confused elsewhere as pate de foie gras, is just the fatty liver of a duck. What you do with your foie gras is up to you! Besides just modestly cooking and eating it whole, you can grind the liver up with flavors and spices and create pate de foie gras to serve either by itself sliced up like a bread loaf or serve it on pastry, bread or crackers of some sort. Pate de foie gras While you can confit the livers to make pate de foie gras, I chose to simmer them in spices.

Get a large pot, fill it with water and add some salt, spices and herbs. I chose a few bay leaves, some whole peppercorns, and salt. You can really add whatever you want, but I chose to keep it simple. Bring the water to a quick boil and then bring it down to a simmer for 10 minutes to bring out the flavors in your spices. Add your duck livers and simmer for another 5 minutes or so for a total of about 15 minutes. The livers should still be a bit pink inside, so to judge adequately, think about 5 minutes of simmering for each 450g (or 1lb) of liver. I only had livers from one duck so I simmered the livers for about 2 minutes. When they’re done, drain the livers, remove the spices and put the livers in a big bowl along with butter, diced onion, mashed garlic, dry mustard, chili powder, apple vinegar and bourbon. If you don’t like one of those items, feel free to omit it and/or add in something else, like nutmeg, juniper berries or even cinnamon.

Use about 120g (or 1 stick) of butter, 1/3 of an onion and 4 cloves of garlic per 450g (or 1lb) of liver, and employ the rest of the spices to taste. A splash of each liquid should be enough. When you’re done, mash everything together with a fork. Taste it, and add salt or more of a particular spice if you think the mixture needs it. Find a pretty, shapely dish to put your pate de foie gras in and let it chill. When it’s done you can either unmold the pate and slice it or you can simply spoon it and spread onto toast or crackers. I loved this recipe- I actually used it to make a quesadilla with some of the leftovers (I’ll get into that recipe in a subsequent article!). Getting lost in translations Loosely translated as bread of fatty liver of duck, pate de foie gras de canard confused me at first. Pate, in French, means some sort of pastry, dough, batter or pie. So, it made perfect sense that when talking about a pate, it was not about some French meatloaf sans pastry.

Julia Child and Martha Stewart seemed to agree that a meatloaf lined with bacon and cooked in a terrine constituted a pate that was sometimes called a terrine. I thought to myself, how does that make sense when the French word directly means some sort of pastry? Anyways, to bridge the culinary gap between terms, I believed at first that pate de foie gras had evolved into something much more practical than pie-like pastry with foie gras. I began to think we’ve merely substituted fancy baked pastry for toasted bread and crackers. It made perfect sense and it was immediately understandable why the essential piecrust associated with the name of the dish fell by the way. I still wondered, why are so many pate de foie gras dishes served without a cracker or other breaded accoutrement? It wasn’t until much later that I realized something else: pate is another word for bread. Perhaps pate de foie gras got its name because it was literally a loaf of meat! Finally. My troubled thoughts had been satisfied.

It turns out, the proper name for pate baked in a pastry or pie is called “pate en croute” and when pate is baked in a terrine, it is properly called “pate en terrine.” It all seems so straightforward now. Perhaps with this thorough explanation, some of you won’t have to experience the frustration I went through trying to sort through the terminology! I’ve seen a few great recipes for foie gras recently. Jaques Pepin published a recipe for “Duck Liver Pate”: a recipe for foie gras served with bread. With ever-delicious duck fat in the hot pan, you brown some shallots, add in one foie gras, some herbes de Provence (a compilation of herbs typical of Provence such as savory, fennel, basil, thyme and rosemary) and some fresh garlic. Cook over medium high heat for a minute or so before adding salt and pepper. Put everything into a blender with a splash of Cognac and puree. For extra smoothness, put the mixture through a fine strainer. Chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and serve with toasted baguettes or crackers.

Just so you’re aware, if for some weird reason you don’t finish your pate that day, it will keep covered in the refrigerator for about 4 days. While pate is, some say, the best way to enjoy duck liver as it is such a pure concoction, another way to enjoy duck liver and elongate the experience is to make mousse foie gras de canard. et la mousse Mousse foie gras de canard, or fatty liver of duck mousse, is about 55% duck liver whipped together with cream, eggs, and spices baked in a terrine and served hot or cold. Sometimes called a parfait (though parfaits are officially known to be chilled sweet desserts, not savory mousses), this type of dish is as complicated and gorgeous as it sounds. I have not had the privilege of trying this dish yet, but I’ve collected a small arsenal of recipes standing at the ready to serve me when I get the opportunity. A talented chef from the Culinary Institute of America suggested a somewhat simple mousse foie gras recipe in one of his video blogs. You start by marinating the liver in brandy for a day, then pour it all into a blender with eggs and cream.

While it is mixing away, drizzle in some duck fat. Mix until it is well blended and smooth. Put the whole thing into a terrine (again a sort of meat-loaf style mold) that is sitting in a water bath (properly termed a Bain-marie). Bake for about a ½ an hour in the oven at 175°C (or 350°F). The mixture will set up into a rich mousse- a seemingly impressive sight to behold! I look forward to trying this recipe soon when I gather enough duck livers to fill a terrine. It continues to amaze me how limited our food supply is in such a populous area of this country. While the previous recipe is admittedly a bit vague as far as exact measurements, another interesting recipe that is more specific includes 570g (or 1¼lb) of duck livers, 450g (or 1lb) of hard pork fat, 180ml (or 6oz) of cream, 6 egg yolks, 55g (or 2oz) of salt, 1 teaspoon of mixed spices and 60ml (or 2oz) of brandy.

Just puree the livers and pork fat together with the seasonings in the blender, then add the brandy, cream and egg yolks. When it’s finished, pour everything into a terrine sitting in a Bain-marie and cook in a 160°C (or 325°F) oven for about 25 minutes or until firm. When it cools a bit, pop it in the refrigerator and serve cold the next day. When you feel confident, change around a few of the ingredients while maintaining the same sort of ratios. To have fun in the kitchen and be a true chef you need to develop a sense of what foods are going to do with each other, and there is no better teacher than experience. This mousse dish excites me because I feel how very adaptable it really is. Some ingredients you may want to play with in this recipe are shallots, garlic, different liqueurs, nutmeg, thyme, rosemary, Balsamic vinaigrette and dry mustard. Another idea is to layer the pate with asparagus in the terrine so when you carve into it there is a very appealing design.

A great type of mousse to make from repurposed, already cooked pate de foie gras is Mousseline de Volaille by Julia Child. Basically, you cook a handful of shallots with butter and 475ml (or 2 cups) of stock to start. She suggests mixing in gelatin, however I don’t like to cook with gelatin. If you want to use it, she says add a couple of envelopes- or 2 tablespoons. Put the mix into a blender along with two cups of cooked duck and a ½ cup of cooked foie gras. Feel free to take out some more of the duck meat and replace it with more liver. Puree all of the ingredients together in the blender. Add a few tablespoons of brandy or wine and some pinches of salt and nutmeg. In a chilled bowl with a chilled whisk, beat 175ml (or ¾ cup) of whipping cream until it has doubled in volume. Fold the puree into the whipped cream and put it into a mold. For this sized dish, a 1.5-1.75l (or 6-8-cup) mold works best.

Julia suggests refining the dish by lining the mold at the bottom with congealed stock jelly, but I find this somewhat repulsive so I would just say use a nonstick mold, cover the entire thing with wax paper and let it chill for many hours before serving. Over to you I hope I have made you think twice about just tossing duck gizzards, heart and liver meats into a stock or -gasp!- just throwing them away altogether. If you have problems locating big bags of frozen duck innards, please don’t lose hope and be resourceful. Call up any market, specialty store, farmer’s market and butcher you can think of. If you can’t have them for the moment, I found that everyplace I called had chicken gizzards and chicken livers at least. You can substitute chicken for duck if you can’t wait. What’s comical is most food purveyors sell chicken gizzards but act like it’s so odd when someone requests duck gizzards! Is it truly that far of a leap? If you encounter this attitude from someone, ignore them, continue on your search, and enjoy the chicken innards for the meantime.

After trying the duck gizzards, heart, and liver just once, I feel as if a whole new world of cooking has opened its doors to me. It’s like discovering chicken for the first time. While these well known bits are certainly an adventure to be had, there is an even more mysterious world of innards awaiting you in duck cooking! I will leave it up to your own imagination to delve into cooking and utilizing the head, neck and feet of a duck. You may be surprised at what you can do beyond the stockpot with these items as well! One thought on “#4 Cooking offal: Gizzards, hearts and livers” Lea Randall Foie Gras: The Indelicate Delicacy - Moment Magazine Home -> Issues -> 2013 November-December -> Foie Gras: The Indelicate Delicacy Foie Gras: The Indelicate Delicacy Share ! tweet By Eileen Lavine Foie gras—the controversial and expensive delicacy described by the renowned food encyclopedia Larousse Gastronomique as “one of the jewels in the crown of French gastronomy”—is made from the liver of a specially fattened duck or goose.

Synonymous with fine French cooking, it’s often prepared in a loaf-like terrine and seasoned with truffles, mushrooms or a brandy such as a cognac or Armagnac. But foie gras was invented in the time of the pharaohs: It was the Egyptians who first observed wild geese stuffing themselves to gain strength for seasonal migrations and discovered that the enlarged goose livers were very tasty. And so the Egyptians followed nature’s lead and began to force-feed geese with grains, a process called “gavage.” Evidence of this is seen in bas reliefs in Egyptian tombs that show workers stuffing food pellets down the throats of geese.

Jews, too, are a part of the foie gras story: The practice spread to Greece and Rome, where legend has it that the Romans used Jewish slaves to feed the geese dried figs, calling the resulting product iecur ficatum, or “fig liver.” As Jews moved northward into western and central Europe during the Middle Ages, they took the tradition with them, carrying it to Alsace, then France, where the dish was named foie gras, or “fat liver.” New methods of feeding were developed, and throughout Europe, Jews sold the fattened goose liver to non-Jews. Joan Nathan, in her book, Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France, says that by the 16th century, “Jews were seen as the best purveyors of foie gras.” A 1571 cookbook by the Pope’s chef praised the liver of a goose “raised by the Jews.” By this time poultry had become key to European Jewish cooking.

Living in lands where olive oil was not always plentiful and forbidden by the rules of kashrut from using lard or using butter with meat, Jews relied on poultry fat—schmaltz in Yiddish. In fact, goose fat was often preferred over chicken or duck fat because its lower melting point resulted in a creamier consistency. Geese were what Mark Caro, in his 2009 book, The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World’s Fiercest Food Fight, described as “prodigious portable producers” or “walking larders.” In addition to cooking with goose fat and consuming goose liver and giblets, Jews ate roasted goose and stuffed goose neck, made gribenes (cracklings) out of the skin and plucked the feathers to make down comforters. Foie gras did present complications for Jews. For one, unlike other parts of an animal, the liver cannot be kashered through soaking and salting—instead, it must be broiled or grilled over a flame.

In addition, the esophagus of the bird must be inspected after slaughter to ensure it has no holes, scars or blemishes, which would indicate suffering while the animal was alive. More complex, however, were the ethical questions. In the 11th century, the French scholar Rashi warned Jews against the force-feeding practice, “for having made these beasts (geese) suffer while fattening them.” This went against Jewish law prohibiting tza’ar ba’alei chayim, suffering to animals, although some rabbis claimed that since none of the geese’s limbs were harmed and the geese did not feel discomfort in their throats, foie gras was not treyf, or forbidden. Other rabbinic scholars suggested that it is only permissible to inflict pain on an animal when the benefit of doing so is significant; since there are no real nutritional benefits to foie gras, the process of force-feeding was questionable. This debate has continued to modern times, but foie gras has remained popular.

The dish became one of Israel’s first exported products shortly after 1948, when it was introduced to the fledgling Jewish state by Moshe Friedman, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor and third-generation goose farmer, according to Gil Marks in his Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. Friedman convinced the government to fund the production of goose livers on his kibbutz; the product was then sold to an Alsatian pâté manufacturer. In recent years, the production of foie gras has come under fire. Some European countries have banned forced feeding of animals, as did Israel in 2005, forcing many Israeli producers to move elsewhere. Today, nearly 80 percent of foie gras—often made with less expensive ducks—is now produced in France, primarily in the Dordogne and Alsace regions, with smaller quantities made in Hungary, Belgium, Spain and Bulgaria. It is also produced in the United States, where in 2012, California enacted a ban on the sale of force-fed foie gras.

Today, the largest American producer of foie gras is Hudson Valley Farms in Ferndale, New York, founded in 1990 by Michael Ginor, a Seattle native and Brandeis graduate who spent two years with the Israel Defense Forces, and Izzy Yanay, who once managed Israel’s biggest foie gras farm. Their Moulard ducks, a crossbreed between a Muscovy male and a Pekin female, are bred with cage-free methods and fed by workers inserting corn by hand through a plastic tube two or three times a day for just a few seconds. Ginor responds to attacks by animal-rights activists by maintaining that this method of force-feeding “is more gentle, more caring and most humane. We do minimal damage to the ducks.” But it isn’t cheap: A one-and-a-half pound portion of fresh foie gras costs $89. None of the duck goes to waste—products on sale include duck breast or magret, duck legs to make confit, duck bones for stock and duck innards sold mostly to Asian buyers. To cater to Jewish customers, the company hopes to offer a kosher foie gras in the future.

Foie gras bears a similarity to that staple of European Jewish cuisine: chopped liver. Popular in countries such as Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania, chopped liver arrived in the United States along with immigrants in the late 19th century. Chopped liver, however, is typically made from chicken, beef or calf, and does not come from force-fed animals. Delicious as it may be, it has come to stand for something insignificant, as in “What am I, chopped liver?” Such has not been the fate of foie gras: whether in a terrine or a torchon, the controversial dish remains, for many, the epitome of elegance. 2013-11-18 What is foie gras? | StopForceFeeding.com What is foie gras? On the left: a foie gras liver. On the right: a normal liver. (Photo courtesy PETA. Permission to use freely) Foie gras - French for "fatty liver" - is the diseased and enlarged liver of a duck or goose, produced through force feeding. The Animal Protection & Rescue League has investigated all three US foie gras farms and several in France and found rampant cruelty to be the norm .

Compassion Over Killing sent an investigator to the largest US farm, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, on a guided tour with a hidden camera and also witnessed the standard cruelty that is required for foie gras production. Two to three times a day, a worker grabs each bird, shoves a long, thick metal tube all the way down his throat, and an air pump shoots up to two pounds of corn mush into his esophagus. The industry always refers to the dry weight of the feed, which is about one pound per feeding. Adding oil and water doubles this weight, making it 20-30% of the bird's healthy body weight. Picture 30 one pound boxes of dry pasta and then add water. This is proportionally how much a 150 pound human would be force fed using this formula. A duck's liver naturally weighs around 50 grams. However, to qualify as foie gras, the industry's own regulations require ducks' livers to weigh an absolute minimum of 300 grams. The vast amounts of feed pumped down the ducks' throats causes enormous internal pressure, and the pipe sometimes punctures the esophagus, causing many to die from choking on the blood that fills their lungs.

Some birds literally burst, choke to death on their own vomit, or become so weak that they are unable to fend off rats from eating them alive ( click to see footage from Sonoma Foie gras--requires Windows Media Player). Other ducks die a slow, painful, and premature death by suffocation from inhalation of regurgitated feed. In fact, because of the massive toll taken on the birds during the force-feeding process, the average pre-slaughter mortality rate is up to twenty times higher than on other duck factory farms, according to the European Union's Scientific Report on the subject. According to the ASPCA, "The birds' livers become so enlarged…that according to documentation by veterinarians, the animals must experience unspeakable pain and suffering. Birds have literally exploded from these forced feedings.

The results of necropsies on dead birds that have been force-fed reveal ruptured livers, throat damage, esophageal trauma, and food spilling from the dead animals' throats and out of their nostrils." In addition to enduring force-feeding, the birds also suffer the same neglectful and abusive treatment of other factory-farmed animals: overcrowding, mutilations (the ends of their beaks are cut off), having all their natural instincts and desires--such as interacting in social groups, mating freely, keeping themselves clean, nurturing their young, exploring their surroundings--thwarted, and eventually being sent to a violent death by slaughter. Throughout the weeks of force-feeding, the birds are kept in either a group pen or an individual cage with only wire or plastic-mesh floors to stand and sleep on. To make matters worse, the ducks and geese are housed without access to swimming water even though ducks need to be able to immerse themselves in water to remain healthy. Access to water on these farms is so limited that the ducks cannot adequately clean their nostrils and eyes, which can lead to blindness. This is all for an overpriced, unhealthy appetizer that anyone can do without.

Please navigate this site to learn more about this issue and what you can do to end this barbaric practice. Hosted by Animal Protection & Rescue League ( APRL ), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Liver Pate Recipe - Allrecipes.com Dick Rebel 4/8/2006 Good basic recipe. Easy, but could use some illumination. First, don't over cook the livers. When stabbed, they should still be 'rosey' inside. Once livers are done, drain, and pick out onio... Xtine Shultz 11/26/2003 This is an excellent recipe. I boil the liver with the onions and a few cloves of garlic then puree it all up together and omit the raw onion. I also add a 1/2 cup of half and half, a teaspoon... Jennie C 3/26/2006 I'm new to the world of pureed meats. First, I made the recipe exactly as printed. Tasted it and then doubled the spices. Very nice ... my mom said it's better than store bought! GENE PETER 1/2/2003 This is an excellent recipe.

I used it for Beef Wellington and it truly made the dish. Thank you for it… its a keeper! BIGWIG 9/30/2007 This was my first time making pate. I think its a good basic receipe but it needs tweaking to make it great. LINDA MCLEAN 2/24/2003 Ah yes, more snow in the forecast! Must type fast before my PC gets rid of me again. I normally don't eat red meat, but again, this is one of those exceptions. I developed a taste for liver pate... THEBACCHUS 2/21/2010 Wonderful! I had to make this for the Beef Wellington but eating the leftovers the next day showed how wonderful it is. My hubby (who only like pate de foie gras) said it was outstanding -- not... MAGGIE MCGUIRE 12/26/2002 Great recipe, William. Thank you. I have never cooked with mace and am unsure of what it would add to this recipe. But I must say, I added a teaspoon of garlic powder, and this spread came out d...

Question: The liver of a goose or duck, when made into food, is called what?
Answer: Foie gras