I once defiantly sat in front of a plate of liver and onions for six hours without moving. I glared at the bitter maroon offender, attempting to incinerate it with my gaze. I thought we were destined to be mortal enemies. Nearly twenty years later, I had another run-in with my old nemesis, but this time, the liver wasn't so bad. In fact, I ate an entire medallion, amazed by the buttery texture and nutty flavor. Seems the villain had transformed completely, and now went by the name of Foie Gras (oh, how pretentious French). "Fat liver", the English translation of Foie Gras, is the engorged liver of a goose or duck which has been force-fed. Both the name and description betray the extravagant nature of this delicacy.

Foie Gras has a long history as a prized food item within many different cultures. It first popped up way back in ancient Egypt. Egyptians believed the goose was symbolic of the connection between man and the divine. Naturally, the Egyptians wished to elevate their own divinity, and so they used nearly every part of the goose, from fat to meat to down. Migrating geese naturally gorged themselves before flying North, and hunters discovered this resulted in excess body fat in addition to an engorged liver. The knowledge was shared with farmers, who then developed feeding methods to mimic this natural happening, in order to produce more cooking fat. At this point in history, fat was a luxury. The fat livers were just coincidental, and not the focus of this practice.

Enter the Romans. Romans are fairly well known as being extravagant in their eating habits. One can call to mind the scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian, where Brian is selling "imperialistic tidbits" such as ocelot spleens and wolf-nipple chips to the masses at the coliseum. While those delicacies might not be historically accurate, the Romans prized the fattened livers, and focused on producing them. Improving upon the techniques of the Egyptians, their system used dried figs which produced a sweet liver. Also interesting, this practice became so prevalent that it actually helped to shape our modern language- the French word "foie" is derived from the Latin root "ficus" or fig.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, it seems like luxurious feating all but disappeared for hundreds of years. It's not entirely clear how methods for producing Foie Gras were passed down. Some think that it survived through small-scale production by peasants in France, some think that it was maintained through Jewish culinary traditions. In any case, Foie Gras resurfaced with the Renaissance, and was elevated within classical French cuisine.

Today, Foie Gras production is somewhat controversial. A disease-resistant breed of duck has all but replaced the goose. Corn is the main source of food during the process of gavage (force-feeding). Today's version of gavage doesn't simply rely on enticing the birds to eat more food- rather modern gaveuses employ the use of a funnel with an electric motor which is placed in the birds' esophagus. Animal activists argue that this is cruel to the birds, food activists argue that disease-resistant birds are not natural, omnivores can trace this delicacy back to corn and, once again, be plagued with the details of the corn industry. Foie Gras producers state that force-feeding is not excessively cruel to the animal. It's an argument that goes back and forth, and one which requires personal decision reflecting one's own ethics.

Learn more about this author, Charity Mann.
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