8/8/2023 0 Comments Disgusting medieval foods![]() ![]() By the 19th century, villages were vying for the 'best foie gras' labels and markets began to specialize in this delicacy some hugely reputable ones exist today: Brive, Périgueux, Sarlat and others.Īs thinking evolves and people become more conscious of animal welfare, farmers are looking for solutions because let's face it, asking the French to give up foie gras would probably be as successful as asking Germans to give up beer. Eventually, these animals were domesticated and the Egyptians developed the art of fattening - built upon by the Greeks, Hebrews and, eventually, the inhabitants of Eastern Europe.īy the 17th century, the population of rural France was expanding quickly and in the southwest, geese and ducks increasingly became part of a household's wealth, hence the growth of the foie gras industry in this region (and in the East, too). We can thank the Egyptians for discovering that geese naturally gorged themselves before migration: they self-invented foie gras to store fat for their long trip. In the beginning, our ancestors in the Middle East acquired a taste for natural foie gras, the kind the animals produced themselves and which they ate along with the rest of the goose or duck (both are popular). It has been around as long as geese and ducks have been domesticated, their fat providing human consumption all year round. Here we're only coming around to that kind of thinking but foie gras is such a popular food in France that eliminating it from our diet is almost unthinkable.įoie gras is incredibly popular, one of our most special French foods, and 93% of us eat it several times a year. This staple of France food culture is the one that is probably most controversial, banned in some parts of the world (and increasingly, in parts of France itself): geese are force-fed to fatten their livers (foie gras actually means fatty liver), a practice that involves cruelty to animals. Some restaurants serve them breaded, or in a tomato sauce, but I'm a purist. Just stay away from the wild ones or you'll be harming the environment.Īs for preparation, my favourite is - as with snails - butter, parsley and garlic (the more garlic the better). Alternatives are farmed frogs' legs from Turkey or Vietnam. In France, frogs are a protected species but there are farmed frogs, delicious and super expensive and usually only found in the best eateries. In cheaper venues or at the supermarket, frogs' legs (usually frozen) come from Indonesia, where our appetite for them is threatening their survival. Now this is one of those interesting French foods you must sample in a top restaurant, not because they make them better, but because of the frogs they use. They only appeared in France during the Middle Ages, in monasteries, and fame followed when they were included in a cuisine dictionary written by Alexandre Dumas, of Three Musketeers fame. Originally they were eaten in China, around the first century BC, and traces have been found in food stores belonging to the Aztecs, which would take us to the 13th century or so. why is it any weirder than eating chicken or quail? The taste is certainly similar. I know this falls under the banner of "weird French food" but wait. Frogs Legs (Cuisses de grenouille: kwees-duh-greNOOY)Īlong with escargots, this is one of the ubiquitous French dishes the world thinks the French eat every day. We do eat them, and love them, but it's not an everyday dish and if you walk into a French restaurant for the first time, don't worry, no one is going to force half a dozen little snails upon you. I should add that our 'snail-eater' label is a little misplaced. It wouldn't do to simply slurp butter so escargots help us pretend we're being civilized about all that butter, helped along by little broken chunks of baguette (normally one would avoid dipping bread into a sauce by hand but when it comes to escargots, everyone else will be too busy doing the same to look at you!) In the end, these French snails are merely supports for the sauce. Instead I focus on the essentials: creamy butter, fresh parsley, and mounds (no, hills!) of fresh garlic. Yes, they do seem a bit icky, even to me, if I sit and think about them. ![]() You'll need a special plate, snail tongs to hold the escargot, and a special fork to pluck them out. And, you may have to practice a little before showing off your skills in public. You cannot eat escargots with a knife and fork.
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