Source: Global Times
Speaking of the famous French dish fat foie gras, many people may not be very clear, its inventor is not French, and the raw material is rarely foie gras. The geese eat more and gain weight before migrating in autumn to have enough energy to complete the trip, and the ancient Egyptians who first discovered this phenomenon invented artificial feeding of geese to obtain fat foie gras. In the Middle Ages, the Jews of central Europe spread the practice of artificial feeding to France, and the French gradually carried forward the production process of fat foie gras.
French farm stuffing duck feeding
France currently produces 20,000 tons of fat foie gras per year, accounting for about 75% of the world's fat foie gras production, and is truly the first fat foie gras empire. However, about 96% of the world's fatty foie gras is actually fat duck liver obtained by filling ducks. Historically, both ducks and geese have been used to make fat livers, but in the past two hundred years, ducks have gradually monopolized the market due to more convenient feeding, but Chinese the name has maintained the term "fat foie gras".
Since the 15th century, The Kings of France, such as François I, Henry IV, Louis XV and Louis XVI, have been loyal lovers of fat foie gras. Henry IV sent a messenger asking the fat foie gras maker to "send 12 fine Bea'en fatty foie gras as soon as possible, the fatter the better, to symbolize the glory of the country". Louis XV not only liked to entertain guests with fat foie gras at court banquets, but also let the chef invent a new way of eating bread with fatty foie gras sauce, which swept the whole high society. Later, the French aristocracy created a top dish of fat foie gras with black truffles, and gradually pushed the fat foie gras to the throne of the representative of the French classic feast. Nowadays, the fat foie gras on the market in France has a variety of different products such as whole fat foie gras, fat foie gras blocks, fat foie gras meat jelly and fat foie gras mousse, as well as raw food, semi-cooked food, cooked food and other ways to eat.
Although ducks offer delicious "foie gras", in French culture, the word duck is often used to refer to fake news, noise or lace tabloids, and the newspaper "Duck Singing" with a history of more than 100 years is to borrow ducks to make a sound, breaking out many political secrets and scandals and becoming the most famous "breaking news" publication in France. The French's "cruelty" to ducks has also been criticized for obtaining fatty foie gras. Before slaughter, ducks are forced to swallow large amounts of feed through iron pipes inserted into their throats for up to two weeks. Animal protection groups point out that ducks' livers are forced to swell to 8 to 10 times their normal size, and excessive feeding makes it difficult for them to breathe or even stand. Zoologists also point out that poultry livers that undergo forced feeding develop fatty livers, and that delicious fatty foie gras is actually a diseased liver. As a result, more than a dozen European countries banned foie gras production. In the United States, where fat foie gras is very popular, California and New York have also announced that they will ban the sale of foie gras. Even the French people themselves began to reflect on whether they would continue to eat.
Most of the duck breeds raised by the French belong to the meat duck, only to obtain meat and liver, and there are few duck eggs. Rejecting fat foie gras can almost cut off the entire industrial chain. How to save the "Pride of French Gastronomy"? Everybody's brains racing. After four years of research, a farm in toulouse, southern France, finally launched its first organic fatty foie gras without the need for duck stuffing at the end of last year. Compared to the normal fat foie gras weighing 800 grams each, the organic fat foie gras weighs only 350 grams each. The specific production process is that by feeding the chicks with lactic acid yeast, the fat storage capacity of the digestive tract becomes more efficient, and a fat liver can be obtained without forced feeding. French Samsung Michelin chef Buhasi also thought that "although the organic fatty foie gras is small, the taste is not inferior at all!" However, the price of organic fat foie gras also reached a record, more than 1,000 euros per kilogram.