Phil

all the posh chefs cook it

Excuse my ignorance

BOB.T

Is it not massively overfattened liver?

little-ginge

It the liver of a duck or goose who has been force fed to ensure an enlarged liver

Tis very controversial

little-ginge

Nicked from somewhere..

The name, which literally means "fat liver" in French refers to a liver from a goose that has been fattened by force feeding so that it becomes particularly large (the liver can weigh up to four pounds). It is very expensive, the texture is smooth as silk, the taste is very rich, and animal rights activists go into fits whenever it is mentioned.
The most well-known use for foie gras is the pâté de foie gras, a rich pâté containing at least 80% foie gras. In certain parts of France, truffles are added to the pâté, resulting in fois gras truffé.

IIRC there is an ethically produced foie gras by allowing the bird to feed naturally but also allowing it unrestricted access to food.

Lee247

Foi Grois

Is as LG said, force fed Geese to enlarge the liver. Makes a very expensive pate.
It tastes lovely, but I won't eat it now on principle.

Phil

Thanks Guys

jods

It's very very nice indeed.

Especially on some very thin crispy toast.

I eat it as often as I can find it.

Which doesn't include Jean Paul Novelli's place in [Harpenden?] - It was a bit of a let down there to be honest.

Very nice in Belgium though. We stayed at the Metropole we did.

Fine Dining Belgium | Hotel Metropole Brussels

The food, room, service etc was outstanding.

Worth a visit if you fancy a long weekend away.

nooobyscoooby

I'm feeling hungry!

jods

I'm just tucking into some quails eggs on buttered toast soldiers - would you like one ?

Perfect for this time of night - don't take long to make and very very nice

Klaatu

Offle, it's just offle. The most expensive coffee beans in the world are first passed through the disgestive tract of an animal and retrieved from it's dung. $50 per cup I think.

Some people will eat/drink ****, literally.

BOB.T

I think the video was on here a couple of weeks ago!

Jaybird-UK

Weasel Coffee

cheaper than that

dpb

Similar principle to the force feed/kept in the dark sparrow/cow

Teh French are lovely arnt they

Varboy

foie gras is so full of fat that you don't need any oil to cook it. Yuk

Tastes nice though.;

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Sorry?

My French property is near to a veal farm, we know the farmer and his family well now. NO animals are kept in cages. The farmer knows every cow and it's calves. He often sits through the night in calving season to help a cow give birth. The cows are kept in barns during the winter to avoid the cold. He simply sells the calves for slaughter before the meat becomes tough.

Alcazar

Edcase

Best foie gras in the UK is 2 mins from my office. Club Gascon in smithfield market. The owner is one of if not the biggest importer of foie gras into the UK, and they have a seperate, dedicated foie gras menu with matching sweet wines! Yum.

jimmyv

foie gras is the business imo, on toast/baguette bit of pepper
and well put alcazar, there seems to be a lot of misconseptions about french farming methods.

dpb

Well i stand corrected ..!

Leslie

I bet it does taste good, but the idea of putting a funnel down the goose's throat and stuffing food down it to compulsorily vastly overfeed it is disgracefully cruel to my mind and I think it should be stopped.

Les

jimmyv

Following on from what little-ginge said there is an ethical way of producing without force feeding, its currently done in spain and has so far won the Coup de Coeur. Im not trying to justify the original methods but it doesn't/wont stop me eating it, everyone is entitled to their opinions

Leslie

Try putting a funnel down your throat then and get a friend to feed you through it!

Les

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

"And a packet of Monster Munch"

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

Basically its very overpriced pate

Luan Pra bang

Not at all. Pate is just the most common way of eating it as it stretches it a bit further. Fois Gras is just the liver on its own and when you buy a whole one its huge. The best way to eat it is to fry it in a pan with no oil for 10 seconds but it can be expensive.

Edcase

As above, pate is a produce of foie gras, it is best eaten as the whole liver, seared for a few seconds either side with plenty of salt and pepper and a nice sauternes or tokay or if you are feeling rich a chateau d'yquem

jimmyv

I think that happened once lol.

ScoTTyB

I think it's pretty low when people value their palette more than an animals quality of life.

oldsplice

Slightly off topic................

Jods, we went to the White Horse and were really disappointed with it!

We thought maybe it was just a one-off.

Removed.

Love it As has been said by a couple of others, a lot of French farmers are very concerned about their animals, and as I'm sure we are all aware there are big differences between traditional farming, commercial farming and industrial farming. It's down to the individual to decide what they will and won't accept as reasonable/ethical production.

Stop buying £1:99 chickens before you worry about fois gras. It's a much larger scale problem, which is much more likely to suffer from the commercial pressure of reduced sales, due to slim margins, than the relatively small market for fois gras, which is a luxury item. I'm quite happy to buy veau fermier, or as you English call it, rosé veal, but I'd not buy the crate produced white veal. I seem to remember that veal crate style production has basically died out in most of Europe due to lack of demand and animal welfare regulations.

I think the broader issues of where food is produced and how is a much bigger subject, such as clear cutting rain forest to provide cheap beef, or palm oil to be used in commercial food manufacturing or bio-fuel. That really makes sense, cut down the rain forest to produce bio fuel so we can save the planet

Sorry, thread jacking rant over

jods

Hi oldsplice,

Our meal was distinctly average and the staff disinterested so our meal there was definately a one-off.

I've also hear that the Auberge du lac is pretty ropy nowadays

Will keep you posted if anywhere decent shows up.