The history of foie gras:
About 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians, who loved to eat foie gras, had a booming economy and society due to the Nile River culture, which led to many Egyptians having to migrate to different places for many different reasons! And the modern situation is not too different), these Egyptians in order to the road can still taste the beloved taste of home, trying to find ways to store goose oil and some of the road to eat things, and from then on found some of the more uses of the goose, not just raise large slaughter to eat so simple.
However, all the way down the development, the real discovery of foie gras delicious, but more than 200 years ago, the Romans, in the records of the Romans is to use foie gras with a piece of figs to eat (I do not know how to taste?), such a dish was also used by the Romans to eat, but also to eat a piece of figs to eat. It is recorded that the Romans ate foie gras with figs (I wonder what it tasted like?), a dish that Julius Caesar regarded as a rare delicacy. Figs with food is certainly good, but also too unchanged, so the real foie gras this noble ingredients in the cooking method has made great progress is the central European Jews, at that time also only they know how to cook a delicious foie gras, but because of the eating of animal offal is not tolerated in the Jews' religious law, so delicious to be tasty, for eating the old man in the family repaired is not necessarily a fun thing. Therefore, the Jews lost the opportunity to promote foie gras as a delicacy.
But the enjoyment of foie gras continued to spread through folklore to the Alsace region in northwestern France and to the countryside in the southwest, where people began to develop ways of cooking it and making foie gras paté and terrine, which is unbeatable when served with French bread.
The simplicity and deliciousness of the dish spread everywhere, and of course, the goose was never the same. To the French Louis XVI period, foie gras was tribute to the court to the French Emperor Louis XV taste, did not think not taste well, after a taste of y in love with this delicious, from the foie gras reputation, we all want to try this so that the boss of the Dragon's heart pleased with the hall of fame is, of course, good things can not be hidden from everyone, from then on, not only from the royals, musicians engaged in the art of art, down to the civilian population we are all very good, and from then on, laid the foundation of the foie gras is a noble and precious food, the goose is a good thing. Foie gras is a noble delicacy of extraordinary status, over the years, with the progress of freezing and food processing technology, foie gras so delicious also began to be able to every corner of the world for people to appreciate.
◎Goose and duck breeding process:
While it is a great reputation, but the goose and duck will not be praised for two sentences on the dizzy Tao tao tao of their own fat, so the French people on this matter of the well-being of the whole population can not afford to be idle, so France's National Agricultural Research Unit came forward to take on this heavy responsibility, through a variety of technical cooperation and experiments, from France to select a set of all the best breeds of ducks, the French government has been working on the implementation of the National Agricultural Research Program. Through a variety of technical cooperation and experiments, a duck from France that combines all the best breeds of Mulard (Mallard Duck, a species of duck in the northern hemisphere, often found in Europe, North Asia and North America with the change of seasons) was selected as the object of filling the duck fat liver.
Since it's similar for geese, I'll talk about ducks here. For 14 weeks after hatching, these lovely ducks are kept outdoors in an open space, like mountain ducks, allowing the ducks to grow in their natural environment, which makes them happy and increases their resistance and activity. 14 weeks later, the ducks are moved to a cool indoor space, where they are force-fed twice a day for two weeks with specially prepared corn syrup, and there is not much difference between geese and ducks in the initial feeding process. There is not much difference between the geese and ducks in the early stages of feeding, except that the geese must be fed corn syrup for four weeks after 14 weeks, three times a day.
In the process of filling and feeding, because of the need to take into account the geese and ducks in the forced filling, easy to cause stress and death, so the whole process of all the geese and ducks are fed by hand one to one way, but also must be constantly patting them, so that they listen to music to help swallow and calm down, so the high cost of labor is the main reason why the price of foie gras and duck liver is always high. The way foie gras and foie gras are made in France has not changed, except that many companies have moved their geese to lower cost countries, such as Rougie, which raises 90% of its geese in Hungary. But duck breeding is maintained in France to cope with the huge domestic market, in fact, because of the cheaper price of duck liver, breeding is less difficult and the production of large quantities of duck liver products in France has far exceeded the consumption of foie gras products, become 80% of the market share of foie gras substitutes, while the foie gras is still a synonym for noble and rare.
How to buy and identify duck and foie gras:
If there is such an opportunity to find some fresh or frozen duck liver and foie gras, the duck liver and foie gras together can be very obvious from the appearance of the size, color and shade of the difference, in addition to the important factor in distinguishing the difference between the two is the taste.
Size: Generally speaking, foie gras is larger than duck liver, a complete foie gras is about 700 to 800 grams, while duck liver weighs about 450 to 600 grams.
Color: Foie gras is an ivory color with a light pinkish tinge, or a light golden yellow, depending on the feed, while duck liver tends to be earthy yellow.
In addition to this, the color of the label can generally tell the difference between duck liver (ivory label) and foie gras (golden yellow label).
Taste: The texture of foie gras is dense, rich and juicy, with a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth feel, which is why it is so highly prized by gourmets. The texture of duck liver is not as delicate and refined as foie gras, but the richer flavor with some rustic atmosphere, coupled with the price of the common people, so that the duck liver also has a considerable number of preferences. There must be many people who wonder how they can buy fresh duck and goose livers in China, and even if they do, they don't know how to cook them, that's right! This is the reason why we are going to introduce liver sauce. Because the average person can buy is already cooked and processed foie gras or duck liver pate, can be divided into glass jars or tin cans packaging, in order to preserve its flavor, the recommendation is to look carefully at the packaging needs to be stored at the temperature, is the room temperature or refrigerated to be clear first.
The general processed foie gras is also divided into whole foie gras, foie gras pieces of pure foie gras sauce or mixed with other liver sauce, and foie gras sauce with truffles, the price is also different, but to the foie gras the larger and more complete, the higher the price. In the market common foie gras, if at a glance the price is acceptable to us, most of them are mixed with some other liver sauce, these added liver sauce may be duck liver, chicken liver or pig liver, and this kind of foie gras price depends on the proportion of pure foie gras, the higher the proportion of foie gras, the more expensive.
Another kind of foie gras with truffles, because truffles are hard to find and grow underground, so their rarity and expensive degree is not less than foie gras, has a quite unique aroma, so filling in the foie gras can enhance the flavor of foie gras, in the price than the general price of foie gras without truffles to be higher.
To enjoy:
If the foie gras is fresh or frozen, it is recommended to cut it into small pieces directly after cooking. After all these things are done, the next step is to enjoy the experience slowly or gobble it up, it is your own business, the key is to enjoy the original color and flavor of the liver pate. In addition, it is recommended to use a non-serrated knife to cut the pate, and in order to maintain the integrity of the slices, you can use hot water to moisten the blade after each slice and wipe it clean, so that the next slice will not spoil the good pate.
Wine pairing:
If strawberries and unsweetened champagne are a perfect match, then the Sauternes region of Bordeaux, France, the noble rot type of sweet white wine is the best partner with a good foie gras, perhaps you want to use this sweet white wine with this delicate and dense foie gras, which of course, some of the reasons, imagine that when a dense and dense foie gras melts in your mouth, the mouth is full of the foie gras, the foie gras, the foie gras, the foie gras, the foie gras, the foie gras, the foie gras, the foie gras. Imagine that when the rich and dense foie gras melts in the mouth, what fills the mouth is rich in grease and slippery texture, it is necessary to introduce another wine that can be quite contrasting but not conflicting on the palate to highlight each other's qualities. The sweet white wine of Sauternes has a similarly rich and dense taste, but is biased towards the honey and fruity qualities, which allows the taste buds to be in such a thick and lingering condition but in a different sensation. Every sip of foie gras and sweet white wine is another shock to the tastebuds, so you can fully enjoy this excellent feast for the palate. In addition, some not sweet champagne, white wine is also a good choice, generally well-treated and mixed with some other liver paté foie gras in the matching red wine will not have too much taste conflict, you can also try.
◎Health effects:
While the French eat a lot of fats and alcohol in their daily diets, the French still have fewer cardiovascular diseases than those who emphasize a balanced diet in other countries. In fact, duck and goose oil are unsaturated fatty acids, and the statistics show that those who consume grapeseed oil, olive oil, or goose oil have fewer heart and vascular diseases than those who consume cow's milk in the northern European countries. The risk of heart disease is lower for those who consume grapeseed oil, olive oil or goose oil than for those who consume cow's milk in the Nordic countries.