FOOD HISTORY: Fois Gras

 *Fattening geese and ducks had a dual purpose, Fois Gras, as a gourmet delicacy and the production of fat for the preserving of food - making confit (cooking the meat in and then leaving it covered by the fat.). This  preserved the meat for several months, insuring a meat supply before many other methods of preservation were available. Fois Gras, the livers of geese and ducks caused by artificially overfeeding them to fatten the livers is a delicacy enjoyed by gourmets around the world. The word literally translated from the French means, "fat liver". The origin of Fois Gras is over 4500 years old. When ancient Egyptians hunted and then domesticated geese, they observed that they had a natural tendency to eat more than usual before they took on the stresses of long migration flights. ((Subsequently, it has been PROVEN that the weight of migrating birds increases by half at this time and that geese and ducks "fill up" before migrating flights and in times of potential bad weather.) In addition, they found that when these fatter birds were killed to be eaten during these periods, their meat became much more desirable and their livers, which now contained  much more fat, had a  richer, silkier and more delicious taste. To insure that they could have supplies of this fatter geese and duck meat and especially their much more fatty livers during the birds non-migratory modes, they developed an artificial method, called gavage, to reproduce this natural phenomenon. Gavage (forcing the birds to eat more food than normal) produced a fatter bird with a fattier liver. At least 20 tombs from the  Ancient Egyptian Empire (2815 - 2400 BCE) depict scenes of artificially fattening geese. Over the years, figs, millet, sesame, vegetables and maize have been used for this purpose. From Egypt, the practice spread to Greece and then to Rome where cooking had evolved from a task performed by slaves to an art form. It was the Romans that found that fig fed birds livers had an enhanced taste; even to the point that these livers were given their own name;, "Iecur Figtatum" (fig stuffed liver"). Fois Gras became  popular throughout the whole sphere of Roman influence. Jews living in in the Middle Eastern regions of the Roman Empire, because of dietary restrictions prohibiting the use of lard in cooking or using butter to cook with meat, used poultry fat for cooking. Therefore, these Jews were particular to the Roman way of producing ducks and geese with fatter meat and livers. Thus, when the Roman Empire fell,  they continued making Fois Gras and it became a staple food of Jewish aristocratic society in Palestine. When these Jews migrated to Germany and France in the 11th century they carried the knowledge for making Fois Gras with them. While by  the 1500's  Fois Gras had made its appearance on tables in the Courts of the French Kings  - the birds were now being force-fed corn brought back by Columbus from the Americas rather than figs - it wasn't until  17th century  France that this delicacy was much more  popularized by  French Court  Chefs.  In 1788, the Governor of Alsace traded a Pate de Fois Gras to French King  Louis XVI for a parcel of land in Picardy. The king loved the dish so much that he began to introduce Pate de Strasbourg  (the capital city of Alsace)  to the Courts of the rest of Europe. This is how Fois Gras became associated with French gastronomy. Fois Gras production became a thriving business in France and is still today, making France the country most associated with this luxurious food.