Foie gras from South-West France
You might think that one foie gras is just like any other!
But it is not!
The difference is striking, and the choice of foie gras is decisive.
First of all, the fattened duck is a high-level athlete. It is a true marathon runner capable of maintaining the pace and distance. All the ducks we rigorously select are raised and fattened on corn in the Lot.
Nevertheless, not all ducks are equal in their performance, which is why only a few are capable of producing an excellent foie gras.
This is especially true given the patience and skill of the farmer, who must establish a true rapport with the duck.
Only through this can one hope to obtain an excellent foie gras with a taste balanced between the bitterness of the liver and the sweetness of the fat, with a supple texture, free from bruising or redness.
This is why we coordinate our schedule with our farmers and reserve the foies gras several months in advance.
A second selection with a dual purpose
After the ducks are slaughtered, the foies gras are brought to the estate by refrigerated truck. Three to four hours later, we receive them in our EC-standard laboratory. The preparation room is ready to receive the foies gras, having been carefully disinfected beforehand.
The arrival time of the foies gras depends on the quality of the batch of ducks and the sorting required during slaughter to meet our quality criteria. Accordingly, the foies gras arrive between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. As soon as they arrive, we begin the preparation. This specific day only ends once all the foies gras have been prepared, sometimes late into the evening.
There is no question of preparing a foie gras that is anything other than "of the day."
Indeed, the liver is an organ that changes very quickly before deveining, and its organoleptic qualities deteriorate rapidly over time.
In addition to the selection of livers at the time of slaughter, we perform a second selection ourselves upon receiving them.
The purpose of this selection is to eliminate unsatisfactory foies gras and to specifically match each one to the most appropriate preparation: Patrick examines each foie gras and rejects those that do not meet his standards.
These are taken back by the delivery driver.
Meticulous manual work
The approved foies gras are sorted one by one and categorized according to their general appearance (texture, weight, color, etc.) and destined for the preparations that suit them best. It is the nature of the foie gras that determines how we prepare it, and not the other way around.
After these sorting operations, the work on the foie gras itself begins: Pascale deveins the foies gras one by one.
This long and meticulous process, which involves removing all the blood vessels that run through the liver, lasts several hours.
The « salting » is performed with unrefined natural sea salt and organic pepper ground at the last moment to preserve all its aromas.
Without additives or preservatives.
All our products are made without preservatives, additives, emulsifiers, or any flavorings (artificial or natural).
Foie gras is an extremely delicate product that changes very quickly. It can only be at the peak of its quality on the day of slaughter. This is why, in addition to a rigorous selection process, we only work with foies gras of the day. We see it as our daily mission to align all these parameters, in partnership with our producer, to offer you, year after year, the supreme quality of this exceptional dish.
Where does the tradition of foie gras come from?
The Pharaohs had already noticed that the meat of wild geese was much better as migration approached. They realized that the flesh of these migratory birds was more flavorful just before their long journeys because the geese "self-fatten" to store the energy needed to cross the Mediterranean.
And just as we do today with tomatoes, they wanted to be able to enjoy this meat all year round, so they began fattening geese with figs.
This dates back over 3,000 years, to Ancient Egypt!
This practice evolved and spread via the Romans throughout several European regions. It is certainly in South-West France that this tradition became most firmly rooted, though even there, foie gras arrived relatively late.
Indeed, geese were first fattened at the beginning of winter primarily to provide fat to withstand the cold, prepare soup, and preserve meat, either instead of or alongside pork.
Foie gras was essentially a "by-product" that people began to cook, wrapped in a cloth, in bone broth. It was certainly upon realizing how good it was that the farmers of the South-West kept this choice morsel to enhance their Christmas meals.
And thus the classic recipe for "Foie gras au torchon" was born: a foie gras that is simply deveined and then poached in a genuine reduced duck broth.
The art of proper fattening
During the fattening process, the liver grows; that is to say, each liver cell stores fat.
This capacity to store fat has its limits, which the skilled farmer masters.
If these limits are exceeded, the foie gras will be very fatty; the cells will burst during cooking, and the foie gras will lose its fat, becoming pasty and unappealing.
What about cirrhosis and torture?
Some cynical or ill-informed minds will tell you that foie gras is a diseased liver, suffering from cirrhosis like that of an alcoholic. To think this is to be misinformed.
In fact, a diseased liver would be red with burst vessels, or even green where bile has seeped into the liver, making it unfit for consumption.
As for those who claim it is torture, it is much the same.
Indeed, geese and ducks, like many birds, have a crop that allows them to store food before it passes into the digestive system.
The art of fattening consists of filling the crop gently, without stressing the animal, with the amount it is capable of digesting.
If a duck undergoes the slightest stress or injury during fattening, its liver will at best be downgraded to poultry liver, as it will not store fat, and more often discarded due to burst vessels and bile infiltration.
