SARLAT, France ― It’s a Saturday morning in this medieval city in the heart of the Dordogne region ― market day ― and merchants have stacked tables in Sarlat’s cobblestoned square with pricey delicacies.

Pungent dark truffles. Wicker baskets filled with freshly picked mushrooms. Black walnuts suspended in jars of honey like insects in amber. Wheels of aromatic cheeses as big and thick as automobile tires.

But it’s the shiny cans arranged in pyramids that draw many of the grocery buyers and gastronomes. Inside the unassuming containers adorned with labels showing pictures of ducks and geese are fattened livers.

Ah, foie gras ― expensive, controversial, delicious.

This area in southwestern France is the heart of foie gras country.

Foie gras means “fat liver” in French. It also means a sizable chunk of the French agricultural economy. Foie gras is big business in France, which produces around 20,000 tons of processed goose and duck liver each year: three-quarters of the world’s foie gras, valued at more than a billion dollars.

Among the numerous foie gras sellers at a recent Saturday market was Jean-Hugues Gautier, who used a tiny knife to dispense duck and goose foie gras on small round pieces of toast to tourists and foie gras first-timers. A small 41/2-ounce can of duck foie gras cost around $14 at Gautier’s Foie Gras Le Dom ’Oie stand. Duck foie gras has a more pungent taste, like wild game, compared with goose.

Why do people buy it? Aside from the unparalleled taste, Gautier said “it’s unique, like champagne or caviar,” as he made change for a couple buying two large cans of duck foie gras.

Before foie gras ends up at markets and on plates at fine restaurants, it begins at farms in southwestern France where large signs on the sides of winding roads feature drawings of geese and ducks.

At Denis and Nathalie Mazet’s Elevage du Bouyssou foie gras farm near Sarlat, hundreds of gray geese and ducks graze in pastures for several months before being force fed. The Mazets get their Toulouse geese chicks when they’re a day old. They reach full size at four months living in the pastures on the Mazet farm, eating corn and drinking water.

“Here they eat all day long ― a little bit,” said Nathalie Mazet, standing in one of the pastures filled with geese. “Then we feed three times a day ― a lot.”

A normal goose liver weighs 3 to 4 ounces. Geese grown for foie gras are force fed three times a day using a tube, called a gavage, and when they’re slaughtered and processed for food, the livers weigh as much as 2 pounds. Force feeding is done the last 15 to 18 days of a goose’s life and 12 to 14 days for a duck.

Denis Mazet, whose family has farmed foie gras for generations, sits on a small bench inside a pen next to a large container filled with whole corn. He pulls each goose under his left arm and tilts its neck back and with his right hand he quickly and smoothly pushes the feeding tube down each bird’s throat. It takes six to eight seconds to feed each goose.

Without force feeding, geese would not eat as much corn and their livers would not grow as large, explained Nathalie Mazet. The Mazets raise and process 1,000 geese and 500 ducks each year at their farm, selling everything except the feet, head and intestines. Feathers are sold to a pillow manufacturer.

Animal rights groups have protested foie gras farms, saying the practice of force feeding is cruel and inhumane. While foie gras farmers contend it does not hurt the ducks to be force fed, critics counter by saying it causes liver damage and is uncomfortable for the birds.

Foie gras was banned for commercial sale in Chicago between 2006 and 2008, and last year the state of California barred the production and sale of foie gras. It’s illegal to sell foie gras in several countries, including Germany, Britain, Israel, Italy and Turkey.

Foie gras farmers like Nathalie Mazet are aware of the criticism. They say their animals are grown to be eaten just like calves destined for veal cutlets or cattle fattened in large feed lots. But Nathalie Mazet says her animals are allowed to roam freely in pastures to ensure her flock remains healthy and are not injected with hormones and other chemicals.

“Usually the people who criticize don’t know anything about force feeding,” said Nathalie Mazet. “I live with my animals. It’s important to me that they have a good life.”

Force feeding animals isn’t new, and it wasn’t invented by the French. In fact, the practice dates back to at least 4,500 years ago, when ancient Egyptians fattened geese. A tomb in Egypt features a bas relief scene of people forcing grain down the throats of geese.

Geese and ducks are singled out for foie gras because their livers are larger than other fowl such as chickens and turkeys. Because geese and ducks migrate, they need the extra fat stored in their livers to help them travel long distances, said Ron Kean, a University of Wisconsin-Madison poultry expert.

Because foie gras is rich-tasting and pricey, it’s usually eaten in small quantities, commonly as an appetizer, although it can be served as a main course. Because it’s so fatty, it’s often served with sweet fruits such as figs, poached apples or stewed pears to balance the flavor, said Adam Siegel, executive chef of Lake Park Bistro and Bacchus.

“It’s one of those things where you either love it or you hate it,” said Patrick Murphy, chef de cuisine at Le Reve Patisserie & Cafe in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

By Meg Jones

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)