# Goddammit, Leave The Liver Alone!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 14, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437 "2010-05-14T15:47:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [May 14, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/1 "2010-05-14T15:47:59Z")
> **[Foie gras causes uproar - CNN.com](https://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/homestyle/05/14/foie.gras.uproar/index.html?hpt=C2)** > > A few dozen protesters picketed the restaurants of acclaimed chef Thomas Keller last weekend, over his use of an ingredient that has become a lightning rod in the culinary world -- foie gras. From the article: \*A few dozen protesters picketed the restaurants of acclaimed chef Thomas Keller last weekend, over his use of an ingredient that has become a lightning rod in the culinary world – foie gras. Chefs like Anthony Bourdain sing its praises, calling foie gras “one of the 10 most important flavors in gastronomy.”\* Fuck you, hippie protestors! You’ve already got California passing a law that takes effect in 2012 banning the best food on Earth, you _thought_ you had Chicago but at least they had the sack to overturn their ban on foie gras, and now you’re trying to take on Manhattan. Piss off! Worry about things that matter, not the fate of some bird being humanely harvested for its meat and livers. Don’t you have baby seals being clubbed somewhere to save? A dolphin in a tuna net? Anything? So, fuck you, self-important save the world wannabees…leave my favorite food ALONE! LEAVE IT ALONE! And Britney too! I’m half-tempted to join them in protest with my own little sign that says “Foie Gras Is Evil…because it’s so fucking expensive!!” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/2 "2010-05-14T16:02:43Z")
Curiously enough, I could see such protesters carrying a sign with this thread title themselves. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/3 "2010-05-14T16:04:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Curiously enough, I could see such protesters carrying a sign with this thread title themselves. Don’t give the bastards any ideas! They might go after clam chowder next, and then _you’ll_ be really pissed! ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/4 "2010-05-14T16:09:21Z")
I guess I completely misunderstood your username ---
**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:** [May 14, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/5 "2010-05-14T16:23:12Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > I guess I completely misunderstood your username Yeah, I guess the appearance of this CNN article is my SDMB mea culpa. How fortunate. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/6 "2010-05-14T16:51:09Z")
As a vegetarian, i’m not especially interested in banning foie gras. I think there are plenty of practices in the livestock industry that are more cruel and inhumane. Actually, even in the foie gras industry, the general conditions that many of the birds are kept in (small individual cages; not allowed to roam around, etc.) is probably more problematic, for me, than the force-feeding itself. I do think the main spokesperson in the article is a bit of a douchebag, though. The first reason she gives for the opposition to foie gras is: > [@](#): > > …our accent, it’s called foie gras, it’s a French word," Daguin tells CNN. Yeah, that’s what it is. All those lefty vegetarians are just nationalistic Francophobes. :rolleyes: Fucking moron. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/7 "2010-05-14T17:01:46Z")
Next, they’ll come for our coffee. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/8 "2010-05-14T17:24:10Z")
On the one hand: Eating liver in any form is roughly as appealing as eating the oil filter from a car that’s just been driven cross country. And if you’re that attached to having one particular, expensive food available, you need to get a fucking life. It’s fancy food, not a constitutional right, and the outrage over the outrage is a fine example of why lots of normal people think “foodies” are completely retarded. On the other hand: Of all the food industry practices to protest, you chose foie gras? Really? This is a fine example of why lots of normal people think animal rights people are completely retarded. Go look at what your organic beef was fed while still alive (hint: corn), or where your free-range chicken was raised (hint: in a cage) if you want something to protest. Then go write angry letters to people who are actually involved in raising and slaughtering those animals, not the fucking chef cooking them. That’s like pissing on the 16-year-old cashier because you don’t like McDonalds’ corporate policies. In other words, anyone who gets particularly outraged either by foie gras _or_ by people protesting against it needs to get a fucking life. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/9 "2010-05-14T17:26:20Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > As a vegetarian, i’m not especially interested in banning foie gras. I think there are plenty of practices in the livestock industry that are more cruel and inhumane. Actually, even in the foie gras industry, the general conditions that many of the birds are kept in (small individual cages; not allowed to roam around, etc.) is probably more problematic, for me, than the force-feeding itself. > > I do think the main spokesperson in the article is a bit of a douchebag, though. > > The first reason she gives for the opposition to foie gras is:Yeah, that’s what it is. All those lefty vegetarians are just nationalistic Francophobes. :rolleyes: Fucking moron. I thought that was a pretty lame reason, too. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/10 "2010-05-14T22:27:53Z")
[hijack] Where, outside a fancy restaurant, can you **get** pate de foie gras in the U.S.? There’s pate for sale in supermarkets and liquor stores, but every package I’ve ever seen was made of pork liver, not goose. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/11 "2010-05-14T22:56:40Z")
Can I agree in principle with the OP, but not be expected to eat any liver? Cuz I really don’t like it. Here, you can have mine. Please, take it. Quickly. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/12 "2010-05-14T23:13:51Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [hijack] > > Where, outside a fancy restaurant, can you **get** pate de foie gras in the U.S.? There’s pate for sale in supermarkets and liquor stores, but every package I’ve ever seen was made of pork liver, not goose. I get goose liver pate at a German import deli. It’s not foie gras, though. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/13 "2010-05-14T23:22:18Z")
I thought this was going to be a thread about drinking. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/14 "2010-05-14T23:25:14Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Piss off! Worry about things that matter, not the fate of some bird being humanely harvested for its meat and livers. Isn’t their argument that the animals are _not_ humanely treated? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/15 "2010-05-14T23:29:20Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Isn’t their argument that the animals are _not_ humanely treated? Obviously, we need to test that argument. I say we kill the protesters the same way the animals are slaughtered. Then, if any of them say it was inhumane, we’ll consider changing the method. ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/16 "2010-05-14T23:33:01Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Can I agree in principle with the OP, but not be expected to eat any liver? Cuz I really don’t like it. Here, you can have mine. Please, take it. Quickly. I don’t normally like liver, but we went to Top of the Mark in SF one night and there was a bit of foie gras on our nibbles plate, and OMG that stuff was like an orgasm on a plate. I try to be a nice typical liberal California nutjob, but if I get a chance to eat foie gras again I’m sure as heck going to. It helps that I was raised on a farm and the feedings I’ve watched online don’t look more cruel than other factory farming methods. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/17 "2010-05-14T23:35:52Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Obviously, we need to test that argument. I say we kill the protesters the same way the animals are slaughtered. Then, if any of them say it was inhumane, we’ll consider changing the method. Very droll. But you realize, i assume, that they are not protesting against the manner of the slaughter itself. Hell, many of the protesters would probably argue that the actual killing is one of the least inhumane parts of the whole process. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/18 "2010-05-14T23:37:44Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > On the one hand: Eating liver in any form is roughly as appealing as eating the oil filter from a car that’s just been driven cross country. And if you’re that attached to having one particular, expensive food available, you need to get a fucking life. It’s fancy food, not a constitutional right, and the outrage over the outrage is a fine example of why lots of normal people think “foodies” are completely retarded. > > On the other hand: Of all the food industry practices to protest, you chose foie gras? Really? This is a fine example of why lots of normal people think animal rights people are completely retarded. Go look at what your organic beef was fed while still alive (hint: corn), or where your free-range chicken was raised (hint: in a cage) if you want something to protest. Then go write angry letters to people who are actually involved in raising and slaughtering those animals, not the fucking chef cooking them. That’s like pissing on the 16-year-old cashier because you don’t like McDonalds’ corporate policies. > > In other words, anyone who gets particularly outraged either by foie gras _or_ by people protesting against it needs to get a fucking life. You’ve never had foie done the right way then. I too detest liver in many/most of its forms. Foie Gras is in a class of its own. It doesn’t taste “livery”, it has a texture unlike any other food on the planet. Its meat butter, baby, in its truest form. Try it sometime. Its incredible, but it can be underwhelming in the hands of an inferior chef, or if the product isn’t good to begin with. Canadian goose foie is inferior to American duck foie, at least in my experience. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [hijack] > > Where, outside a fancy restaurant, can you **get** pate de foie gras in the U.S.? There’s pate for sale in supermarkets and liquor stores, but every package I’ve ever seen was made of pork liver, not goose. Specialty stores. Be prepared to pay big bucks though. Some of those country pates you see that have some/all pork/chicken liver in them (with or without true foie) are pretty damn good though. The only thing I don’t really like on those is the aspic. Meat butter (foie gras)=yummy food of gods, meat jelly=weird and gross. > [@Oakminster](#): > > Can I agree in principle with the OP, but not be expected to eat any liver? Cuz I really don’t like it. Here, you can have mine. Please, take it. Quickly. Ah, another person who hasn’t tried well-prepared foie gras. Go out and try it. Live a little. Forget that its liver. It isn’t anything like the liver and onions Gramma used to make you eat. > [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > I thought this was going to be a thread about drinking. Cheers! > [@Mangetout](#): > > Isn’t their argument that the animals are _not_ humanely treated? Yes, and the counter argument is that they feel no pain and are happy to overeat. Kinda like Americans at the trough of McDonalds I suppose. Even if the production of foie gras can be reasonably shown to be cruel, I don’t care. Its just a bird raised for slaughter. Chickens fare far worse and I like to eat them, too. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/19 "2010-05-14T23:42:32Z")
> [@Kalypso](#): > > I don’t normally like liver, but we went to Top of the Mark in SF one night and there was a bit of foie gras on our nibbles plate, and OMG that stuff was like an orgasm on a plate. > > I try to be a nice typical liberal California nutjob, but if I get a chance to eat foie gras again I’m sure as heck going to. It helps that I was raised on a farm and the feedings I’ve watched online don’t look more cruel than other factory farming methods. TESTIFY! I thought the exact same thing the first time I was supposed to try it. I thought “liver? Ewww!”…boy was I wrong. It is truly the most orgasmic food eating experience out there, followed closely by truffles, properly prepared sweetbreads, lobster in its myriad forms and caviar. All of which I sadly cannot afford much of. Its definitely a special occasion food unless you are wealthy or work in the right kind of restaurant whereby you can take advantage of what I fondly refer to as “scooby snacks” or just “scoobs”…little scraps of the shit the chef will flip you if he or she likes you. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437/20 "2010-05-14T23:44:30Z")
I don’t eat guts, unless they run out of all the other parts of the animal. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-leave-the-liver-alone/539437.md?page=2)