Foie Gras

Hmm I know I mentioned that I like this stuff before and that they use it quite often on Iron Chef. What I didn't know is how this stuff is made. I always just thought that it was French duck liver pate. Wrong. Well sorta wrong. For those of you with strong opinions on animal cruelty please stop reading.

Foie Gras is made by force feeding ducks/geese with ridiculous amounts of food (+0.5kg/day). To do this they shove a tube down the bird's throat and inject the food. This copious amount of food causes the bird's liver to swell beyond normal proportions. And thus you have foie gras (after you kill the duck of course). There's a whole animal activist site called gourmetcruelty dedicated to it. What is distubing is the video they show of the bird getting force fed.

For someone who only buys free range eggs this is an interesting thought. I'm not sure how it's going to influence my culinary decision making....I guess we'll have to wait and see.