June 2008: Ethical Choices
To eat or not to eat foie gras, is the question that has been bandied around for the last few months, and an experiment held in Spain oped to shed some light on the delicacy
What a strange world we live in where it seems to be more socially acceptable to be allergic or to hate something than to admit to never having tried it. We find more adult visitors to Spain have an automatic negative reaction to food they have never tried before; children on the other hand love to try unusual food especially if the parents show a dislike.
In a country where the consumption of snails, suckling pig and lamb, and offal of all descriptions is the norm, it is difficult to come across any new product that raises the blood pressure of the Spanish above that of who cooks it, and how to cook it. Most foodie subjects raised to scare the consumer usually originate in the UK or the US. While they want better holidays, better housing and even better mobile phones I remain unconvinced that you can scare them into buying better food. Those who readily complain about the horrors of eating young suckling pig will at the same time eat whitebait or sardines without giving the hot age issue a second thought.
The latest concern relates to the subject of foie gras and especially new Spanish “ethical” foie gras. It has to be said there are a number of people who wouldn’t even try any liver let alone goose liver, fattened or not. Having to find a panel of testers who had at least some knowledge of the product was proving to be as difficult as obtaining the actual product itself. It’s not often anyone gets the opportunity to taste a range of similar products at the same time.
But having watched with interest how Tesco’s product testing methods work in the recent TV programme, apparently dumbing down the products to suit a dumber audience, I have recently survived a slightly different product testing experience here in Spain and, true to form, it turned out to be not as straightforward as I first thought.
We made the trip to southern Extramadura this time to investigate and buy some “ethical” foie gras so prominent in the press recently. Unable to access the company’s website, we found the farm’s address in Fuente de Cantos in a business directory via our local tourist office here in Javea. Arriving unannounced as usual we managed to uncover some inconsistencies and at the same time surprise the producer. Despite boasting supplying Corte Ingles in Spain, Selfridges and certain chefs in the UK, the shop in Fuente de Cantos had almost no product for sale stating it was the wrong time of year and too warm for the geese to feed. So we asked if we could visit the farm.
The people in the shop telephoned the producer who was more than happy to give us an organised tour including picking us up from the airport. However he was less than happy when he found out we were already on his doorstep. We were told the actual farm was in the process of being moved and anyway he bought livers from a range of farms and they were all at present located in Portugal.
I’m no Gordon Ramsay and before this experience I had limited experience of foie, which Larousse Gastronomique describes as goose or duck liver, which is grossly enlarged by methodically fattening the bird. The enlarged livers have been counted as a delicacy since, some say, ancient Egypt. Having seen the force feeding of ducks as well as fishing practices in France it is hard for me to describe either as cruel compared to battery farmed chickens and some cattle feedlots which made uncomfortable viewing. Most producers of foie consider their methods to be both traditional and authentic and far from cruel. To be honest I couldn’t tell a huge difference between what was claimed to be ethical and that which wasn’t, save for a little coarser textural difference in the “ethical”. With our limited supply of what was available in the shop we returned home.
Our idea was to arrange a tasting of similar products, which although available to locals and restaurant customers as a generic foie appetiser, very little is actually known about. Would the different products varying greatly in price, texture and perhaps taste, be worth the money? Would the tasting panel be able to taste without prejudice, agree with the taste versus the price comparisons especially in relation to the new “ethical” foie gras?
We tried Spanish foie gras Entero De Pato Mi Cuit Martiko that cost €50 per kilo. It was one of the most popular and readily available foie on the market, which everyone gave a familiar nod to. We declared the price reasonable and well within budget, and well presented. However no one had previously noticed the ingredients were whole duck fattened liver 98%, salt, sugar, preservatives E250, E252, spices, antioxidant E301 and armagnac. Spanish La Pateria De Sousa Higado Entero De granso Etico Sin Maltrato at €327 per kilo was the ethical product we had gone so far to test, although the panel had no idea of this at the time. It was described as a more natural product with a better, stronger taste, which made someone comment about the previous product’s taste being unnatural – “What foie should taste like, a coarser texture, no mucking about plain simple and very good”. However when we revealed the price, everyone was more than a little surprised despite its “ethical” label. Not only was the price exorbitantly high but the same size packaging held 10g less. But everyone was pleased with them selves having described the taste as natural when it was declared as containing only goose liver, salt and pepper.
Half of the French Ferme De Phalange Canards Eleves, priced at €40 euro per kilo, was poached in white wine with black truffle, aspic and no seasoning, and was more of a chef’s ingredient available direct from France. Although cheaper to buy in this form, it needs cooking to produce a final product that resembled the previous ones on test. Described as too “animaly” by two of the panel, everyone would have preferred more salt. It was pointed out that most of the Spanish meat products for sale have been subjected to a salt curing process however medical advice was to reduce overall salt intake in the UK. The price was lower but no one was prepared to undertake the process of cooking it or keeping it fresh, as it meant having to plan too far ahead for a cold product so easily available ready prepared.
The other half was sliced and cooked quickly on a plancha in a little unsalted butter. It was seasoned, cooked and served hot in a completely different style to the others, which were served cold. It demonstrated just how differently the same product could taste. Although described as better than the cold version and a “bit cheffy”, it was recognizable as an ingredient similar to one that they had tasted before.
The tasting until this point was serious and structured. However once we had described our findings in Extramadura, the conversation and consumption turned to wine. Pepe B said he too had travelled to a specific bodega to research a wine to find they didn’t have any vines of their own despite the claims.
You don’t realise how much into their food the Spanish people are until you witness a simple tasting morphing into a greater event where everyone brought a little something to “enhance” the tasting experience.
Personally I don’t believe we have the right to be the world’s food police when our own standards of food production could be so much better. There are no rewards for passion alone with more and more emphasis being put on price, packaging, presentation and promotion than product. The result surprisingly was not a question of which were the better products but more an outpouring of gratitude, privilege and debate. We all should know more about what we eat and where it comes from, as well as what it contains before deciding whether we should eat it or not.
In my view it is not as easy to hoodwink the Spanish as the English with ethical, natural, organic products based upon the title and packaging alone. Most conversations here are food focused, which is why we enjoy spending time here. False labelling claims alone will not stand up to proper scrutiny by those who are familiar with the original product. But I would rather inform, educate with customer training and stimulate consumers to want better standards in food production and make informed decisions. Maybe then we’ll love our food as much as we appear to love our computers.
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