Please let us know how it turned out. I'm very curious now, since IMPE, liver gets bitter after too long in the freezer.

Okay, I haven't had time to watch the TED talk, but I did read the article and I say good for Eduardo, but basically the gist of the whole thing is that if we call something else foie gras, then it becomes sustainable/acceptable/humane, which is a dodge.

He says himself in the article:

Eduardo’s foie gras was very different: it was a whole lot of liver enhanced by a small amount of fat.

So in other words, it's a wonderful paté that may well be better than traditional foie gras, but it is not foie gras. Foie==liver, gras==fat. You could call it foie mince or foie maigre, or something, I suppose

But hey, if just calling something quite different foie gras makes people happy, go for it.

Full circle to the Spam thread! ;)

One day, may be it will be considered not moral to eat chickens.

Today's cage free chickens are better, but still cruel.

This is better cage free free range chicken:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J0wSwfuCQE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1GbZ5c5O4

dcarch

Interesting that they have to call them. Most people I know whose chickens roam free can find them coming to meet them when it's food time. If they bring a guest to see the chickens earlier, the chickens get upset and race over, then if they feed them anything then, the next day they start gathering earlier because they think that feeding time must have changed.

Mentally it was a bit of a challenge, especially with Carol’s experience, but I went for it. Thawed, then sous vide @136 in the package it came in for about 20 minutes, seared in cast iron pan and served on toast with a sprinkle of Maldon salt. I kept searching for off flavors but found none. What can I say, it was good! And if I live another day I’ll definitely be coming back for more. Thanks for your encouragement!

Well, I knew you wouldn't die, LOL, or even get ill. It was frozen and so the safety was never compromised, only the quality was in question. I'm glad it was still good, that's would be a horrible waste of both money and food. Somehow it's not so bad when it's a bag of peas...

Sleevendog, I don't eat commercial meat. Any of it. I know that not everyone has the ability to grow their own food but I do. Good thing, or I wouldn't eat it. I grow my own chicken and beef and sometimes pork, unless a neighbor I know well has an extra pig, then I buy one of his. I do buy milk from a small local organic dairy, and butter and cheese come from there too, as well as whipping cream. I haven't yet figured out how to grow my own seafood or I'd do that too! So, I have drawn my own personal "line in the sand". I don't expect other people to do the same, so if I go to FOAS and he offers me foie gras I'd eat it, or KFC or Omaha Steaks or whatever, I'd eat it. I just won't use my own dollars to support the industry, although I know it's a necessity for a huge percentage of the population.

I also read the article and had the same take away as writersblock, that it's not really foie gras. They can call it anything they want, I don't have a problem with it, but it's not the traditional process nor the traditional end product.

dcarch, my chickens also come running, as do my cows, my dogs, my cat. I seem to be just a bearer of something good to eat to all of them, LOL. If they don't see me I'll call and they'll come but usually one of them notice that I'm there and they tell everyone else.

Annie

Ethical foie gras is possible because of migration and the effect that has on the goose. Their livers become fat naturally, without force feeding. Yes, the liver will be smaller than one where the goose has been force fed. There's a Spaniard who is famous for this technique.

In have also seen free range birds being force fed - having a tube put down their beaks, and coming back for more and not being at all distressed.

I think where it's terrible is where the birds are caged. But that goes for any animal.

I haven't had time to read all the above yet....

So, foodonastump, you had fresh liver. I thought it was a terrine. It's lovely served, not on toast, but as a starter with peeled grapes, soaked in a sweet wine, and the pan deglazed with the wine and grapes.

That sounds good, Islay. I’ve seen it paired with other sweet fruit as well. I seem to recall some reference (movie?) to peeling grapes for someone being romantic, so maybe I’ll work it into Valentine’s dinner. This was just a test run and honestly I was expecting it to go to the dog, so I didn’t put any thought into it. Much more where it came from.

Sonni, you give it to your dog??? So it's ok to potentially make him/her sick???

I knew this was coming!

"-Sonni, you give it to your dog??? So it's ok to potentially make him/her sick???"

Actually, dogs and other animals will and can eat rotten and infested meat, and even other animal's droppings without getting sick.

dcarch

But I didn't see it going there!!!!!

(LM%O)

Just for the record: I do not feed my dog rotten and/or infested meat. But it's a load off knowing that!

That's why I don't use poison in my garden. Animals, neighbor's dogs and cats will eat rotten dead animals.

dcarch

I keep reminding people that if it was safe to eat when it went into the freezer, it's still safe to eat when it comes out. The only thing that suffers is quality, it's NOT a safety issue.

My dogs had pork chops for supper. They'd been in the freezer 14 months, and not vacuum packed, just in a ziplock bag. They were sufficiently frosted to probably affect flavor, but the dogs loved them. It's perfectly safe, it just doesn't taste the same, so they become dog food. I do not feed my dogs spoiled or rotten food of any type, but anything in the freezer is fine for dog food, the stuff in there was frozen for the express purpose of being consumed. It just sometimes gets "lost" for a period of time...

Annie

Thanks Annie....was scrolling like mad to say just that. When we would have half a cow and a pig in the freezer, friends dogs sometimes got treats....I mean a toy poodle doesn't eat much, even when it's pork liver!!

LindaC, we have two BIG dogs. Our shelter dog is half Sheltie and half some kind of hunting dog, she weighs 80 pounds. I fondly refer to her as Molly Pig. Sadie weighs about 100 pounds and is a labrador retriever and St. Bernard mix. Neither eat dog food, they eat grass fed beef, pastured pork, free range chicken and organic vegetables, all raised here on the farm. Even those two monsters can't always keep up with the less popular cuts of meat that come with whole pigs and steer halves and whole chickens counted in the double digits, so things still sometimes migrate to the bottom of the big chest freezer or to the back of the upright freezer, and they hide there, sometimes for a year or more (way, way more, sometimes). I just found some eggs frozen in 2014, which I scrambled with a handful of cheese and the dogs had them for breakfast. I often find vacuum packed blueberries or sweet cherries that are two or three years old. They are always fine, and I put them on top to use first. I also found a package of chicken wings from 2015, I'll cook them and if they don't taste good, they're dog food too.

Somehow I've never found foie gras, though...(sorry for hijacking your thread, FOAS).

Annie

I ADORE foie gras, especially in the winter. The best I've ever had was seared with apple slices, and the pan deglazed with Calvados. Had it in Paris - I dream about it sometimes. I buy mine from d'Artaganan - very high quality products.

I do eat meat and enjoy it. To each his own.

foodonastump, your foie gras looks amazing! I'd have eaten it.

Anglophilia, is that the D'artaganan online? Can't find it locally.

OT: Speaking of dogs... I had an big (over 250 lbs. in the winter) St. Bernard that ate everything... except chicken bones, and that was my call - he ate all other bones. All leftovers, anything in the fridge or freezer that'd been there a bit too long, and cheapo dog food (I was poor back then!), and fat drippings. He ate raw and cooked veggies and meats. He was healthy and very happy! I prepare my current dog's food as she has a liver disorder and her liver can't process a lot of things. Sometimes she eats better than I do, but that's only because I get a bit tired!

3-year old vacuum sealed foie gras? No dog of mine would have enjoyed it, I'd have!

I'd never give my dog anything questionable because i know who would have to clean up If it wasn't.

Well, since Sadie is 15 and Molly is 8, I guess I'm not killing them with grass fed beef either. They do get baked liver, which makes great dog treats, and occasionally I give them a slice of my homemade liverwurst, recipe compliments of Mr. Kramer, Peppi's Dad.

Elery's old chihuahua was 13 when he was injured by another dog and we had to have him euthanized, but it wasn't because of his diet. He never ate dog food either, when he was young he was sick and the vet said to give him a mix of hamburger, cottage cheese and rice. After that he'd never eat a bite of dog food again.

I don't give them too much fat or poultry skin or such, because of the possibility of pancreatitis, I do know a couple of people who had very sick dogs from doing things like pouring a ham's worth of drippings over a bowl of food. I decided that wouldn't be a good idea with my big girls.

Truthfully, I'm not sure foie gras would actually be very good for them, even if it were cheap and readily available.

Annie

Well, I see that my post about feeding beloved pets potentially rotten food was met with eye rolling and "I knew this would go there" and likes for posts against mine. Alrighty - I'm not going to insult or question your choices, but for me, dogs have evolved and there's no way that I'm going to take my dog's health with such nonchalance. Not interested in an argument, just flabbergasted at the apparent willingness to risk pets' health.

I’d not purposely give my dog “spoiled” food but he certainly gets stuff beyond when I’d eat it myself. For example he seems to find week-old cold cuts a treat, and if chicken starts to smell slightly funky I’ll cook it and give it to him but not the family. Susieque I don’t think any of us purposely risk our dogs’ health, we just might have different ideas of what consitutes risk. And to dcarch’s point, considering what dogs willingly put in their mouths when left to their own devices, the last thing mine has anything to worry about is what I’m feeding him.

I am flabbergasted at you not knowing how canine digestive system is different from humans. Talk to your vet!
And as has been said, we are not talking about rotting food, but dogs do OK with things that would make us sick, and we can eat things that will make a dog sick.
Again dogs and humans are different, and good food from the freezer that was not rotten when frozen is not rotten years and years later.
Sorry for the eye roll..;-)

Thawing and re-freezing is generally thought as a no-no. It's nothing to do with safety, it's a texture thing. Perfectly fine to eat.

Many people I know feed their pets raw food, and often ask for freezer-burned food (not rotten!) to feed their pets. As a supplemental diet. We buy commercial raw food. Nothing like a hearty beef bone to give a dog, a chicken neck to cats. Mine don't care for the chicken neck, they're unsure what to do with it, but everytime I prep our meats I always give some to them first. Yesterday they enjoyed pork butt; they eat the pope's nose, chicken drumstick, hamburg, bits of beef roast. I gave Bud a thawed smelt once, and he wasn't impressed.

Yeah, Jasdip....I offered Latte an anchovie when I was making a salad.....she wasn't having any of that!!

I read somewhere not long ago that the reason dogs can eat rotten meat without getting sick is because they have a much faster metabolism and digest food faster than humans do. Anyway, I give my dogs stuff that has gone off in the refrigerator. They usually eat it and with no untoward consequences. Exception being that both of them pass on really moldy cheese. They're OK with a little mold. They also, neither one, will eat raw liver. I have to cook it before they'll eat it.

Well, Sadie once got into a 50 pound bag of fish food that we use to feed the game fish we have planted in the pond, and the clean up wasn't pretty, although she seemed to recover better than I did.

AS has been said, dogs are not people. They can't eat things we willingly eat, like chocolate, raisins, avocados, xylitol. We don't eat cat poop, cow manure, dead creatures. That's the way it is.

But we're talking frozen food. As I said before, if it was not spoiled when it went into the freezer it's not spoiled when it comes out. It's perfectly fine for the dogs to eat, and it's not going to hurt them, make them ill or harm them in any other manner, unless you do something like give them 5 gallons of chocolate ice cream.

Annie

ANYTHING vacuum sealed is good for YEARS. (unless your freezer loses power). My husband is a deer hunter and I vacuum seal most of it, just for that reason. Some years he gets more than others. Yes, we eat all of the deer. I use the FIFO system.

Sherry, I agree. My meat processor packs my beef and pork in vacuum sealed packages and when we came across a couple of chuck roasts from 2012 we cooked them and they tasted just fine. We canned the remaining steaks from 2012, to make freezer room.

Annie

"---We don't eat cat poop, cow manure, dead creatures. That's the way it is.---"

We sure do eat poop. What do you think in raw oysters and raw clams?

dcarch

What do you think in raw oysters and raw clams?

Also, peel and eat shrimp. I want mine deveined.

I just had some oyster stew....there was nothing but parsley floating in it...:-)

Nope, sorry, dcarch, I don't eat raw oysters or clams. You go right ahead! I do use natural casings when I make sausage, but I make sure they are well cleaned, LOL. And I said, specifically, cat poop and cow manure.

writersblock, I also devein shrimp.

And I'll correct myself, we do eat dead creatures and I even eat beef raw. It's not really common, though, and that's why there's a cooking forum! I was really more referring to that mouse the cat just caught. He can eat it, I'm not going to, even if it's vacuum packed and frozen!

Annie

I don't chew bones out on the lawn either but dogs rather like that.

Oyster stew every December here... and just the other day I was cleaning up the herb garden and had the oddest desire to sprawl on the lawn and gnaw on some rawhide...

LOL, I can just see it, lying on the lawn and chewing on a big beef joint.

FOAS, I am so sorry that we've hijacked your foie gras thread. I thought of you this morning when I thawed that frozen vacuum pack that says "8 wings" and "6/18/15". They are nearly thawed, we'll see whether they are supper or dog food.

Annie

Foodonastump, thank you for your lucid, friendly response. I get it and don't disagree with you.

LindaC, yeah, whatever. I know that you tend to be caustic and critical, and you didn't disappoint.

I DO NOT consider my pets my fur babies - yuck. Not at all. But I'm really not interested in approaching risk. My pets' health and my pocketbook aren't worth the recovery risk.

Funny the obvious ridicule here .... like laying on the front lawn chewing on a bone, etc. Really, people? I simply indicated that my pets' health is, to me, not risking it by giving them questionable food, so I'm a ridicule target? Oh my.

I agree that pets, untended, will eat dead animals, rotten food they find outside, etc. But then they typically puke. Hmmm.....do you think that, just perhaps, their body is rejecting what is not good for them? Huh. Interesting thought.

And yes, I eat raw oysters, ahi tuna, and all of that stuff. But I wouldn't give that to my dog/cat. I did, however, have a 19 year old cat that I labored over and gave a raw diet to, according to vet recommendations and on-line education, for 9 years, due to severe digestive issues. I'm not opposed to raw nor lots of other stuff - - - handled appropriately.

Carry on, folks. This clearly isn't the forum for me.

It was pointed out rather quickly that it is not spoiled food one finds in a freezer that has remained frozen and packaged properly. It can loose texture and some quality especially if not cryovac packaged. That fact is pointed out in food safety manuals. Various foods have recommended times spent in a freezer, in a fridge, on a pantry shelf, etc.

Just not sure why you insist that it is an irresponsible pet owner to feed rotten food when that was not implied. It is not rotten spoiled food. That is just 101 poor reading comprehension.

Suzieque, my comment about sprawling on the lawn and gnawing on rawhide was not remotely directed at you and had nothing to do with what I do and don't or have and haven't fed pets, or anything you've posted or others posted with one exception: I read dcarch's comment about yes, we eat poop when we eat oysters and clams raw, and that made me laugh aloud at my own perception that I have never eaten poo because clearly, I have, and I thought I'd add something amusing to go along with dcharch's observation and share it with others, many of whom most likely have eaten raw oysters or clams (or other forms of 'poo' at some point in their lives). I still think it's funny. Clearly, Annie found it amusing : ) Glad to make you grin Annie! Suzie, I'm sorry, but that comment was not directed at you.

I once ate dog biscuits from a box. I was a child. That has nothing to do with anything though. But should anyone wish to liken me to their pet, or make a joke about dog biscuits, or poo, involving me, I welcome the humor and I won't take offense : - )

Thank you, 2ManyDiversions - I apologize.

Suzieque: " I simply indicated that my pets' health is, to me, not risking it by
giving them questionable food, so I'm a ridicule target? "

"Sonni, you give it to your dog??? So it's ok to potentially make him/her sick???"
You clearly singled me out and insinuated that I consider it ok to
intentionally make my dog sick.

Nowhere here did it appear to me that any post was intended to ridicule anyone. So I invite you to reread this thread - and enjoy it. Picture a grown woman lolling around in the grass chewing a rawhide bone. Imagine opening a jar from the freezer labeled oyster stew, heating it gently on the stove and then going in for the scoop of that anticipated oyster, only to come up with a spoonful of parsley!. Do not think about the dog face first in the litter box or about that dark string down the back of a shrimp. Or how many times you ate it before you knew what it was.

So to all here - I will end with one of my favorites quotes from one of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins. "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." (though I think it's too late for me to enjoy a good dog biscuit!) May we all have a bit of happy tonight.

>> I was really more referring to that mouse the cat just caught. He can eat it, I'm not going to>>

Annie, your comment made me laugh! because (1) one of my cats used to catch mice but only eat half of it, leaving the other half for me in plain sight (freaked out a guest staying with us overnight), and,

(2) if you have never read Farley Mowat's book "Never Cry Wolf" (1963), try to find it at your local library. It's a hoot! Mouse stew, indeed.

Me, I love foie gras. I figure if my Filipino friends can eat balut, I can eat goose liver, LOL. Mustn't forget the famed Thai dish, "Dancing Shrimp", either:

http://www.rantandroam.com/goong-ten-dancing-shrimp-northern-thailand/

I actually like some of the odd dishes I've come across, yet some things I can do without. Balut is one of them. I do like tongue but not tongue carpaccio. As long as it tastes like pastrami I'm in.

Or Italian Casu marzu.

I am glad that I have been to places and had eaten with the people there where when meat goes stinky, they just wash the smell off, or cover with heavy spices. I think my body now can handle food that is less than in ideal conditions.

dcarch

LOL, sleevendog, I like that. I do occasionally eat tongue, we used to have it for sandwiches. It was a bit disconcerting, though, to open the refrigerator door and see a big cow tongue, whole and chilled on a plate. I usually save them now for Peppi, because her Dad is very fond of them, whereas we usually just add them to sausage.

jakkom, I'm going to find that book!

suzieque, I was not trying to insult or ridicule you. I only pointed out that if food was not spoiled when it was frozen it would be still safe, as long as it remains frozen, for years, decades even. It just won't taste good anymore. The USDA agrees with me, so that's not just my opinion. I wasn't even thinking of your post when I laughed at 2manydiversions, it just tickled my funny bone, thinking of grown people rolling around in the herb garden. Still does. (snicker)

And, in other news, we had the wings for supper tonight. I baked them, Elery gamely took a bite and said they tasted fine. He did seem somewhat surprised. I sauced them and he and the dogs had them for supper. I'm not a fan of wings since I don't like chicken skin, so I let them have them. 8 chicken wings isn't really all that much to eat for a man and two dogs.

And a big thank you to my good friend Peppi, who encouraged me to wrap the chicken in produce bags before I vacuum sealed it, to keep the liquid from interfering with the seal. It stayed nicely sealed and I think the double wrap helped keep it from being freezer burned.

Annie

Annie - I love crisp chicken skin, and my favorite part of the turkey at Thanksgiving is a wing.

Seagrass, you and my Mom, she loves the crispy skin. I just don't like chicken skin, no matter how crunchy (or not). It has a weird texture that puts me off. Somehow, though, there are always lots of other people who want it, so they never try to convince me I should keep trying to eat it, LOL.

Annie

Soft floppy chicken skin....EWWW!
Latte likes it though, but it makes her sick....even it it's not been in the freezer for 3 years.