Foie Gras

foie gras ‘goose or duck liver which is grossly enlarged by methodically fattening the bird’, as the Larousse gastronomique sums up the product. The enlarged liver has been counted a delicacy since classical times, when the force-feeding of the birds was practised in classical Rome (they were fed figs).

It is commonly said that the practice dates back to ancient Egypt, and that knowledge of it was possibly acquired by the Jews during their period of ‘bondage’ there and transmitted by them to the classical civilizations. However, Serventi (1993) casts doubt on this legend, while agreeing that Jews played an important role in diffusing through Europe knowledge of the techniques for successfully ‘cramming’ the birds and processing the livers. The birds were useful to Jewish cooks as a source of fat, Kashrut forbidding them lard and often butter.