# Foie Gras... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289 "2011-06-29T18:22:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/121 "2011-07-02T19:37:11Z")
I’m another who has no desire to try it – I’ll eat meat, if the animal is slaughtered humanely. Key word being “humane”. Question – is there a way to make it by NOT force-feeding a goose? ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/122 "2011-07-02T20:56:08Z")
Guess I’m with **Amansett** and **SanVito**. No foie gras, no veal here. I very seldom eat chicken. The bigger problem I have with it is the simple fact that a fatty liver is a disease symptom. I don’t think parts of diseased animals should be food. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/123 "2011-07-02T21:07:38Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Question – is there a way to make it by NOT force-feeding a goose? I don’t think there is. Their livers _have_ to be engorged many times their normal size with fat in order for it to be what it is…a luxurious, buttery meat pillow to rest your tongue upon. > [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > Guess I’m with **Amansett** and **SanVito**. No foie gras, no veal here. I very seldom eat chicken. > The bigger problem I have with it is the simple fact that a fatty liver is a disease symptom. I don’t think parts of diseased animals should be food. So its a _good_ disease! Cool! ETA: and actually I don’t think its considered a disease when its artificially induced and the ducks/geese are slaughtered well before their normal lifespan would be up. And they are just birds. It would certainly be a disease in a human, but we aren’t opening the Chianti and sauteeing up the fava beans (yet). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/124 "2011-07-02T21:23:59Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I’m another who has no desire to try it – I’ll eat meat, if the animal is slaughtered humanely. Key word being “humane”. > > Question – is there a way to make it by NOT force-feeding a goose? No clue, but my geese will stand by a broken open bag of chow and eat constantly if you don’t notice the bag has a hole in it … until it is empty. I suppose I could try free feeding 50 pound bags of chow to see if I can get one to die of chirhosis. I am sure the goose would be happy to get all the foot it can chow down on. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/125 "2011-07-02T22:10:26Z")
Cirrhosis and fatty force-fed liver “disease” aren’t the same, are they? I though cirrhosis involved scarring of the liver tissue due to alcohol abuse…which would be a uniquely human condition. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/126 "2011-07-02T22:32:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by \*\*Le Ministre de l’au-delà \*\* > Liver paté is something I’ve had thousands of times, and I love it. > Foie gras is different - the animal suffers before dying in order to make the liver ‘tastier’. It is entirely your choice to eat it if you wish, but it is my choice to avoid it. > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Hard to parse this, **Ministre**. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause any confusion - I was just trying to point out that I know the difference between a ‘paté de foie gras’ made from the enlarged liver of a goose and ‘liver paté’ which is made from the livers of ordinary chickens, ducks or geese. I make and eat the latter from the livers of free-range chickens - it is not as creamy as the ‘paté de foie gras’, but I enjoy it none the less. As to the animal suffering, while no geese have ever complained directly to me, I have known people to have an enlarged liver through disease and/or overuse. I’m convinced the birds find it just as painful, which is why I don’t contribute to the practice. I respect the choices of those who do eat foie gras, I’m just explaining my reason for sticking to my version where the texture is coarser. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/127 "2011-07-02T23:32:27Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause any confusion - I was just trying to point out that I know the difference between a ‘paté de foie gras’ made from the enlarged liver of a goose and ‘liver paté’ which is made from the livers of ordinary chickens, ducks or geese. I make and eat the latter from the livers of free-range chickens - it is not as creamy as the ‘paté de foie gras’, but I enjoy it none the less. > > As to the animal suffering, while no geese have ever complained directly to me, I have known people to have an enlarged liver through disease and/or overuse. I’m convinced the birds find it just as painful, which is why I don’t contribute to the practice. I respect the choices of those who do eat foie gras, I’m just explaining my reason for sticking to my version where the texture is coarser. Ah…gotcha. I was wondering about that. I figured the Canadian language barrier got in the way yet again. Thanks a lot Celine Dion! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/128 "2011-07-03T04:02:27Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I though cirrhosis involved scarring of the liver tissue due to alcohol abuse…which would be a uniquely human condition. Not if you raise your pets humanely. If you own a fat tomcat with his balls snipped off, and the only exercize he gets is moving from the sofa to his litter, to his feed bowl and back; trust me: that cat needs a fucking drink. 😛 [QUOTE=aruqvan] No clue, but my geese will stand by a broken open bag of chow and eat constantly if you don’t notice the bag has a hole in it … until it is empty. I suppose I could try free feeding 50 pound bags of chow to see if I can get one to die of chirhosis. I am sure the goose would be happy to get all the foot it can chow down on. [/QUOTE] Don’t know nothing about geese, but I’m confident my dog will eat itself into a coma, no questions asked. Doesn’t matter if she’s hungry or has just been fed, if you [del]put it in front of her[/del] leave it anywhere whatsoever that is within her reach, she will wolf it down like she’s just down from Mount Sinai and God has been stingy with the mana. The only way she will stop is when she cannot physically fill herself more because her belly is already resting on the ground. This is not a figure of speech: it has happened. A full kilo of [calissons d’Aix](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calisson), gone in 15 minutes. She was out of commission for three days. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/129 "2011-07-03T11:42:53Z")
One of our roomies when we were down in Portsmouth VA had a siamese cat that got into the dog kibble, the stuff that is about the size of a small gumball. You could pretty much feel the kibble in the tummy. He ate until he couldn’t cram any more in … we found him snoozing in the bag of kibbles. He made a noticable dent in the amount of kibbles. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289/130 "2011-07-04T07:27:26Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I realize this may be controversial but as I recall [you support the Cuban revolution](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13707663&postcount=2), where people are treated worse than most dogs in this country. I think it’s hard for anyone to wrap their heads around how you support a country where [bloggers are beaten](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/6678937/Yoani-Sanchez-Cubas-popular-blogger-has-been-beaten-up-for-describing-life.html) and food is so limited that people are [forced to cook with mineral oil](http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=2414). She had it good compared to other Cubans: “We were quite fortunate to have that semblance of “butter” that someone stole for us, because in the nineties many others had to distill engine oil for use in their kitchens.” > > [Yoani Sanchez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoani_S%C3%A1nchez) is the blogger, named to Time’s Top 100 Most Influential People list, even cited for her efforts by Obama. WOW, way to drag up a wholly unrelated thread just because you don’t like my answer. And please point out where in that thread I said I ‘support the Cuban revolution’??? You a Fois Gras farmer or something? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foie-gras/587289.md?page=6)