Le foie gras, qu’est-ce que c’est ?

Foie gras is a French product known around the world for 3 reasons:

1. It’s considered barbaric by animal right lobbyist
2. It’s expensive
3. It’s delicious

1. Alright I’m usually against animal torture and such, but I have to believe that ducks don’t suffer too much from being force-fed until their liver gorges with fat and triple size. I think all the French are raised to think that (just like Spanish people don’t feel for bull during corridas ? ). So I won’t speak too much about this controversy.

2. For the price part, I must say France is really different from the rest of the world. It’s like champagne or wine. In France foie gras is a bit expensive but not prohibitively so (not like caviar for example). And when you live in the southwest of the country or, like us, have family and friends from there, it’s even easier to get good product for a reasonable price.

3. The raw foie can be prepared many ways. For really good ones, they are divine just sauteed quickly and served with toasted bread and a fruit sauce. Most of the French eat it for Christmas and new year’s eve as a terrine. The pictures above show a terrine that we opened recently. The yellow part is the fat that comes out of the foie when it’s cooked (you don’t eat that). The blackish part come from oxidation and pepper. I didn’t know until recently but such terrines can be kept for several years and just like wine, the foie gras will develop new aromas. This one was from 2008, so it was 3 years old.