Foie Gras

Gilly said:
Not in the least bit. My Grandad was a butcher, and always impressed upon me the importance of killing a beast or any other animal properly.

There are many ways of killing. Some far worse for the animal than others. The animals are bred as food, that much is inescapable fact, and as I eat that meat I have no problem with it. What I do have a problem with is us not doing all we can to ensure that the animal isn't subjected to any undue pain or stress.

Foie Gras doesn't fit into this, so I would never eat it. I would never eat battery hens, or eggs from battery hens, either.



Still none the wiser but I have something to Google now. Ta.
Click to expand...

Good post. If enough people avoid purchasing unethical animal products it does alter production methods. From the start of this year the UK is battery hen free (although there is the insidious caveat that imported battery hen eggs from europe are still legal) :/
 
OT: I have tried pate and didn't like the consistency, so I don't think I would like FG.

Looks really high in cholesterol too, although saying that, I eat crackling etc which is probably just as high :/

BB x
 
Gilly said:
Never even heard of river cottage!

Saturday Kitchen > *
Click to expand...

:eek:

You should have a look, excellent series that like someone said further up the page, a good look at how things are done that we don't neccasarily get to see :)

He was first to do the 'raising his own animals to kill and then eat' before Gordon Ramsey.
 
Egon said:
It's nearly always the dish of choice to start a meal at family gatherings and special occasions.
Click to expand...

Same. :) Owing to the same reasons.



As for cholesterol, it is high, but since your body doesn't absorb dietary cholesterol as quickly as it produces it's own, as long as you're a relatively healthy person, you can eat it with littler consequence. :)
 
robfosters said:
Can't agree with it myself.

If you're going to kill an animal for food, the least you can do is let it have a decent, stress free and painless life until it is needed.
Click to expand...

Gilly said:
Bingo.
Click to expand...

FrenchTart said:
Agreed.

That said, there are plenty of foods that I eat where I don't know how the animal was treated. As such, it seems a bit hypocritical of me to have a massive problem with one particular food type over another just because the mistreatment of the animal is well publicized.
Click to expand...

Herein lies a problem with this sort of thing. While you can choose to only buy free range eggs, chances are that anything you buy which contains eggs or egg products will have those eggs produced by intensive farming. And up until now (and continuing outside the EU) this meant battery hens. You can keep thousands of chickens in a barn with no daylight and little floorspace and not have it called 'battery farming', but is it any more 'ethical'? You can't produce the 2 million chickens consumed in the uk each day without intesive farming.

So in reality it's almost impossible to state that you never eat battery chickens or battery eggs unless you're sure of the provenance of your chicken meat & eggs, and that doesn't mean buying from the Organic or Free Range brands at your supermarket.

I'm happy to eat fois gras, veal, etc as I've seen it being produced. Most modern fois gras farmers don't force the feed into the geese. Yes they provide the grain in bulk and may introduce it to the goose's bill but they gorge on the food instinctivley. Plus if you mistreat your birds then you're not going to get get good quality product, so it's on the farmer's interest to look after them.
 
I eat it in restaurants from time to time. Delicious though very rich. It is cruel how it is produced though I agree, but the same argument could be said of other food stuffs.
 
I used to be against eating Foie Gras on the grounds of cruelty until I realised how the whole meat industry works (generally speaking). Now, I love it :). I've had it on many occasions, but I think I can honestly say that I've never eaten anything so amazing than when I had it at Le Gavroche, and again at The Ledbury. Simply stunning food.
 
It's not something I'd order, but I've had it as part of a tasting menu on a couple of occasions and it was, admittedly, really nice.

Even so, I think there's enough other nice food around that I'd refrain for ordering it due to how it is produced.
 
Absolutely love Foie Gras and used to live off it while i was working on a cruise ship. I have tried various qualities ranging from €6 per 175ml jar to one that was €60 for the same jar. I like them all. The biggest downside i found on the cheaper one is that there was far too much fat for my liking.
 
Freefaller said:
Whilst the preparation is "ethically questionable" I'm afraid when the food tastes so good as a result, I don't much care. Albeit, you can buy "ethically" produced foie gras - but ultimately, the goose/duck/etc...
Click to expand...

I believe it is called "Fauxgras"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2007/dec/06/stepforwardforfauxgras

I love fois gras and always bring some back from France. I love it with a small piece of toasted brioche and maybe some fig chutney. Wash it down with a glass of Sauternes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom