Foie Gras vs Pate. Any difference?
 

Some friends and I are leaving for Paris on Thursday. One of them just read an article in the New York Times regarding a duck farm in upstate New York and she is all upset because I love foie gras. Reading the first lines of the article did upset me so I told her that I would not eat it. I don't want to get into a heated debate about eating meat, wearing fur or buying leather. I only want to know if pate is prepared as foie gras (feeding tube stuffed down the bird neck and forced feed for 30 days...) thanks

Pate is not necessarily foie gras - if it is, it will be identified as such: pate de foie gras.

Foie gras is actually goose liver, not duck liver. Like Lizzie said, you can have a pate made with or without goose liver. You can also eat foie gras seared (and probably many other ways) and so that would not be a pate. They're really 2 different things, though foie gras is sometimes an ingredient in pate.

I though it was geese, not ducks,(?) but yes, pate de foie gras (&amp; only foie gras) is made by force feeding, using a funnel &amp; tube.<BR>Yeugh.

Foie gras may be either goose or duck (or any other fowl, for that matter) - it simply means "fat liver." Goose is foie gras d'oie; duck is foie gras de canard. Pâté de foie gras is a pâté that contains the liver. There are myriad other products you might think of as pâtés as well that are made with foie gras - rillettes de canard; mousse de foie gras; terrine de foie gras - there's no end to the ways in which the French use the livers. Whether in France or in New York, though, foie gras cannot be created without force feeding the ducks/geese to enlarge their livers within a relatively short period. The process is called "le gavage" in France, and generally involves a tube and corn kernels. I'm sure we could have some considerable debate on the merits of the process...but let's not.

Just one thing - I have seen this done once. The birds queued excitedly to get at the tube. The farmer simply sat on a gate and popped the tube down the eagerly presented throats of the geese (in this case). I'm a happy naif, nut, since then, my guilt has been allayed!<BR><BR>If you object on moral grounds, you can't eat Magret de Canard either!

My understanding is that it is against the law to force feed in the U.S. and that the foie gras produced in upstate New York (I assume you're talking about D'Artagnan) comes from ducks that have been bred to overeat without resorting to gavage.

I can certainly believe that the USA might ban force feeding, but I'm curious how one could breed ducks to overeat. I've been told by numerous French breeders that ducks and geese naturally overeat during certain seasons. This is not said as an "excuse" for the force feeding because, clearly, if they overate enough to produce foie gras there would be no need for the gavage. But how do you breed an animal to overeat? ANyone know?<BR>And yes, it's true, the little honkers come running the moment they see the tube.

The leading source of foie gras in Europe is Hungary, a country that has made quite a cottage industry of force feeding geese, based on what I've read.<BR><BR>The geese are exported to France just before "harvest" so that they can legitimately be called French. I don't know what recent "bans" on movement of farm animals may have done to this practice - - presumably nothing, since poultry are not implicated in BSE or FMD.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

The NY Times article refers to the Hudson Valley Foie Gras Company, which may be the source for D'Artagnan foie gras; it is the main producer of foie gras in the US, and they do force-feed the birds. This is what Patty was referring to in the article.<BR><BR>There are many types of paté, so you may certainly eat paté and avoid foie gras, you just need to ask what's in your paté.

Patty,<BR>You've gotten a lot of information regarding Foie gras, but little on pate. Pate is invariably misidentified. It is a pie, that is, pastry on top, sides and bottom encasing a filling of meat, fish, vegetables or fruits. In certain parts of France, you'll find Pates made with eel, fish, shellfish, game birds, beef, pork, lamb or poultry. It may be served hot or cold. The dish frequently thought to be a Pate is actually a Terrine. A Terrine is any food preparation put in a pie dish lined with strips of bacon and baked in an oven. A Terrine is always served cold.

Actually... pate can be either en croute - cooked in a crust, or en terrine - cooked in a fat-lined terrine. the terms "pate" <BR>

Did a bit of research. StCirq and Caitlin are correct (Hudson Valley Foie Gras does apparently supply D'Artagnan and they do force-feed the ducks) and I was therefore wrong (not sure where I got that misinfo - I don't think I made it up). Apologies. Pretty tasty stuff, regardless.