19 May 2004
Kosher Foie Gras
If you ever decide to fork out the dough for some kosher Foie Gras, it may be useful to know that the French Delice brand (glatt, OU) is fully cooked (as is appropriate for liver) and ready to eat out of the container. Thanks to the OU’s Webbe Rebbe for the info.
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To give you a ballpark sense of price, Fairway in NYC (the uptown one at 125th St.) has a teeny tiny can (some small number of ounces) for $65.
You can get it much cheaper at the Duty Free in Ben Gurion airport.
Is this the same as the "classic" version, complete with force-fed geese? If so, it will always be "treif" to me. Same deal with chained calves for veal; free range veal is supposed to have more flavor, anyway…
Nathan — very true. Several months ago, Rabbi Heinemann of Star-K visited Brookline and spoke at the Young Israel about modern Kashrut issues. He started out discussing the rise in demand for "white veal," which comes from calves that are deprived entirely of iron. He described how these sickly calves would rub up against the fencing around them and lick the metal off their fur to get any iron into their systems. After such an unfortunate description, I hoped he would go into the ethical ramifications of eating veal raised in such a fashion… but, alas, he didn’t even mention it.Maybe someday we’ll see more of a focus on ethics in regard to kashrut. In the meantime, it would help if free range meat were more commonplace and less expensive. Meat prices as they are, it would be hard to get your average consumer to spend even more.
Of course, Rabbi Heinemann also blamed the demand for "white veal" on the "housewife," so I didn’t have very high hopes for him getting into animal ethics.
Ducks and geese on foie gras farms have up to 2 pounds of food per day pumped into their stomachs through long metal pipes that are shoved down their throats. This cruel ordeal often causes severe injuries that make it painful or even impossible for the birds to drink. Those who survive the feedings suffer from a painful illness that causes their livers to swell 8 to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to walk and are reduced to pushing themselves across their cages with their wings. To find out more about what’s involved in foie gras production and how you can help stop this cruelty, please visit: http://www.GourmetCruelty.com