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Comment by jihadjihad | Hacker News Reader

I'm reminded of the Ortolan Bunting, a bird prized in French cuisine and with a most unforgettable method of preparation and consumption.

They're caught with nets, force-fed with grain, drowned in Armagnac, seasoned, and then cooked in their own fat. When you eat one, you hold onto its head and place it feet-first into your mouth, all while wearing a towel or napkin on your head to "shield from God's eyes the shame of such a decadent and disgraceful act" [0].

0: https://web.archive.org/web/20210303221803/https://www.teleg...

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First the foie gras, now this. Are there any other "Torture the creature before eating it" French dishes we should know about?

Lobster?

I'm not aware of any recipes that force the lobster to gorge itself before killing it? Most lobster recipes usually involve bisecting the lobster's head with a sharp knife (killing it instantly), or dunking it into boiling water (which is probably incredibly painful for the duration, but ostensibly kills it within 10 seconds or so).

> I'm not aware of any recipes that force the lobster to gorge itself before killing it?

Presumably the above poster is referring to the viewing of the practice of boiling the lobster alive as torture.

Not OP but yeah, it's even illegal in some places: https://i.redd.it/9njvxxae6pad1.png

Why single out France or foie gras? When you look at factory farms across the globe, force feeding ducks is just one of many ways we torture the animals we eat.

> Why single out France or four gras?

Because foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by force feeding.

If the animal wasn’t force fed, it literally wouldn’t be foie gras.

Most other forms of animal cruelty in food production is because of industrialization. We could clean up many of those and still sell the products without so much mistreatment.

Foie gras can only be made by mistreating the animal. So it’s gonna be specifically called out.

This is a misconception, migrating birds naturally overfeed before taking their long flights [1] and a few farms actually produce natural foie gras [2]. There was also a NYT article about a farm in Spain producing natural goose foie gras by trapping migrating geese. [ref needed]

Obviously this is totally marginal compared to the size of foie gras industry.

See

[1] https://honest-food.net/wild-foie-gras-is-real/

[2] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-tren...

[3] https://modcarn.com/natural-foie-gras-in-the-wild/

> Foie gras can only be made by mistreating the animal.

This is not true.

Mistreating? They sure like to eat. Mistreatment if you were aiming for a long healthy life but this may not be what you are assuming it to be.

It's certainly mistreatment. They're fed until they can literally hold no more. It's not great.

the "force" in "force-feeding" is a pretty important distinction

The word 'gavage' does not have the same effect. Funny what can turn on a phrase.

It turns out people understand uncommon foreign loanwords less.

Not french per se, but the victorians also ate "slink veal" - an unborn calf either spontaneously aborted or removed from the carcass after slaughter. Not too popular (or legal) today.

South Korea has that covered. There's a (presumably minor) tradition of eating things like fish, squid and octopus while they are still alive.

Similarly, I ate drunken prawns in China, though I can't say for certain if those shrimp were stunned or actually dead.

Snails are put to diet for a few days, then kept in salt and vinegar to "slime out" for 24 to 48h -- probably quite unpleasant for them.

Unfortunately not a historic curiosity. I know somehow who ate one in France a decade or so ago.

> know somehow who ate one in France a decade or so ago

Technically banned for over a decade, FYI [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting#Legal_status

I remember reading this article in Esquire about Francois Mitterand and his last great meal:

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a4642/the-last-meal-05...

I recall reading about this in “The Scavengers Guide to Haute Cuisine”. In it. Steven Rinella creates a feast from Escoffier’s classic book. Excellent read.

And eaten with bones and all in one bite.

Evidence for solipsism, I say!

"Brutal."

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