Old times
Feb 19
Old times [ to publish ] At a as early time as century XXV adC, the Egyptians discovered that ocas originating of long migratory trips and that rested to borders of the Nile river during the winter, they stored natural fat reserves in his liver. The liver varied its tonality towards the yellow and presented/displayed an exquisite flavor. Soon they learned that many birds could be barleys by means of the overfeeding, so that its liver was hipertrofiase and began with the practice to fatten to domesticated gansos. In necrópolis of Saqqara, the tomb of an important real official, Mereruka, contains a bas-relief with a scene in which enslaved they take hold by the neck to ocas to introduce balls to them of food in his throats. To their side are tables with more balls of food, probably elaborated with toasted grain, and a blister to dampen the food before giving it to the gansos. The practice to overfeed gansos expanded by the Mediterranean from Egypt. The earliest reference to supercharged gansos data of century V adC., and is narrated by Greek poet Cratino, who spoke of “boots of gansos”. Nevertheless, Egypt maintained its reputation like source of supercharged gansos. When king Agesilao de Esparta visited Egypt in 361 adC., he was entertained with “fattened gansos and bull calves”, the best products of the Egyptian farmers. Nevertheless, the introduction as elaborated gastronomical plate comes from the Romans, to whom iecur is denominated ficatum (iecur means Latin liver in, whereas ficatum comes from ficus, higo). Pliny Old grants credit of his creation to gourmet Frame Gabio Apicio, to that the only book of Roman kitchen that has arrived to the present time, by means of the feeding of the gansos with dried higos is attributed, in order to hipertrofiar its livers. The Ficatum term was associated so much to the liver animal that became the root by which it derives foie (French liver), liver (in Spanish) and fegato (liver in Italian). The practice to cause hipertrofia of the liver of the gansos feeding them with higos could come from hellenistic Alexandria, since great part of the Roman kitchen of luxury must its inspiration to the Greeks. Posclásica time [ to publish ] After the fall of the Roman Empire of the West, the liver of ganso vanished temporarily of the European kitchen. One has affirmed that galorromanos farmers preserved the tradition of the manufacture of the foie gras during centuries until he was redescubierta. Nevertheless, this theory lacks no reasonable evidence, since it is known that the sources of meat for the French farmers of the Average Age were ewe and pig fundamentally. One much more considers that the tradition was preserved by the Jews, who probable could learn the method to hipertrofiar livers of gansos and ducks during his property to the Roman Empire. The Jews conserved this knowledge in their migrations towards central and Eastern Europe. The Kashrut, the compendium of nourishing laws that determined the character to kosher of the diverse foods that could consume the Jews, prohibited them to use butter to cook. Mantequilla was not an alternative either, since also it was prohibited to mix meat with milky products. The Jews used olive oil in the Mediterranean river basin and oil of sésamo in Babylonia, but no of such products was available during the Average Age in western and central Europe, so they used bird fat that could produce in abundance overfeeding gansos. The delicate flavor of the fattened livers soon was appreciated, as it registered Hans Wilhelm Kirchhof de Kassel, which wrote in 1562 which the Jews fattened gansos and that appreciated particularly their livers. Nevertheless, some rabbis were worried about the complications that to the eyes of kashrut could suppose to overfeed gansos, since the Jewish nourishing law prohibited the animal raising that did not live more than twelve months. He must be indicated that the rabbi of the century XIX Moses Sofer even maintained that if an animal could die within the twelve months, would not be an impure animal, since no of its lungs would be damaged. In any case, this question remained more like one of the debated subjects within the Jewish nourishing laws until the taste of the Jews by the liver of ganso declined in century XIX. The gentile gourmets began to appreciate the liver fattened of ganso, who could acquire in the Jewish guetos. In 1570, Bartolomeo Scappi, cook of Pope Pío V, published its book of kitchen Operates, in which it comments that “the liver of the bred domestic gansos by the Jews has a great size and a weight of between two and three pounds”. In 1581, Max Rumpolt de Maguncia, cook of several noble German, published an exhaustive book of called kitchen Kochbuch, in which it tells that the Jews of Bohemia produced livers of more than three pounds of weight. Rumpolt provides several prescriptions for him, being one of them the one of mousse done of liver of ganso. The methods to produce liver of ganso fattened arrived at France through Alsacia. Main producers [ to publish ] France is the leader of the foie gras in the world, providing 80% of the world-wide production (16,370 tons in 2003, 96% of duck and the rest of ganso), and elaborate practically everything (98% [ 1 ]). It provides use to more directly than 30,000 people, and 90% of the production reside in the regions of Moors, Périgord (in Dordoña) and Midi-Pyrénées in the southwest, as well as in Eastern Alsacia. The European Union (UE) recognizes the foie gras produced by means of traditional methods (”it labels red”) in the southwest of France with a geographic denomination of origin. In America, Québec, old French colony, also has a prosperous industry based on the foie gras that usually uses many Canadian cooks like demonstration of national pride. In Spain, the lack of legislation has caused that numerous producers have used indifferently the terms paté and foie gras, which has caused confusion between the consumers.