News alert: animal-friendly foie gras is now available
A good slice of foie gras on a crispy baguette—things don’t get much more festive than that. At least not for us; for the geese or ducks whose livers we eat, life is a little less of a celebration. Good news: animal-friendly foie gras is now available to buy.
Foie gras remains one of the most controversial products. Geese and ducks are force-fed to make their livers grow so large that we can spread them on toast. Horrible, of course, but oh, oh, so delicious. So fatty, so creamy—it’s no wonder that many a foodie occasionally ‘forgets’ their principles and takes a big bite. I certainly do, but plenty of people are strongly opposed to it. Now even these moral crusaders can enjoy a delicious piece of goose liver.
Ethically irresponsible
Do you always stay well away from this devilish food for ethical reasons? The Volkskrant now reports that this is no longer necessary. Joeri Groot, the owner of a company that trades in poultry meat, has come up with animal-friendly foie gras. He saw how the geese were fed, and it certainly wasn’t a pleasant sight, so six years ago he began experimenting with creating a fair alternative, the newspaper writes.
Animal-friendly foie gras? How? Joeri uses ordinary livers, which have not been fattened through force-feeding. Together with meat technologist Nino Terjung, who is also known as the mad meat scientist (haha), he developed a technique in which goose fat is injected into the regular liver. This is done under extremely high pressure, causing the fat and liver to merge, so to speak. As a result, their product is identical to ‘regular’ foie gras at a microscopic level.
No difference
We’re always a little wary of these kinds of modern tricks, which usually don’t do much for the flavor. Fortunately, we don’t need to worry about that with this product. Chef Guillaume de Beer (Breda, Guts & Glory, Píta and number four in the FavorFlav Food Top 100) can’t even taste the difference. ‘If this isn’t foie gras, then I wouldn’t know what is,’ he tells the Volkskrant. If it’s good enough for Guillaume, it’s good enough for us!
It is now on the menu at restaurant Bolenius, and no one has commented on it yet, according to the restaurant’s chef, Luc Kusters. If you’re ready to run to the store right away to get your animal-friendly liver, hold on just a little longer. Animal-friendly foie gras is available in very limited quantities; only a few Michelin-starred restaurants can get their hands on it. A factory using the technique will open in March, after which we mere mortals will hopefully be able to buy it soon too.
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