Foie gras

Foie gras (French for "fat liver") is the liver of a duck or goose that has been overfed. Along with truffles, foie gras is considered one of the greatest delicacies in the world of French cuisine. It is very rich and buttery, with a delicate flavor unlike regular duck or goose liver.

Production methods

Birds do not chew their food and have no gag reflex, thus they can be force fed large amounts of whole foods. Ducks and geese are omnivorous, and like many birds, have very elastic throats which expand and allows them to store whole food in the esophagus while awaiting digestion in the stomach. In the wild this dilation allows them to swallow large items, such as a whole fish, for a long digestive process. A wild duck may double its weight in the fall, storing fat throughout much of its body and especially on the liver. This weight gain is entirely reversible both in the wild and with farmed fowl used in foie gras production.

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The geese or ducks used in foie gras production are initially free range, feeding on grasses that toughen the esophagus. While still free roaming they are gradually introduced to a high starch diet that by itself leads to about half of the enlarged liver's size. The next feeding phase, which the french call finition d'engraissement, or "completing the fattening process", involves careful stuffing of feed into the birds throat. This exploits a natural process through which geese and ducks store fat in their livers in preparation for winter migration. The feed, usually corn, causes large amounts of fat to deposit in the liver producing the buttery consistency.

Related Topics:
Migration - Fat

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Geese used in foie gras production are generally Moullard geese. Ducks used are a sterile hybrid; a male of the species Cairina moschata is crossed with a female domestic duck (Anas platyrhynchos).

Related Topics:
Cairina moschata - Anas platyrhynchos

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