Canard à foie gras du Sud-Ouest (Chalosse

Appearance & taste

The skin and fat of the force-fed duck are ivory to yellowish; according to the specification, the colour depends on whether white or yellow maize was fed. A high proportion of fat in all parts of the duck is characteristic.

Sold fresh are the whole duck with or without the liver, the eviscerated carcass, the foie gras, duck breast, legs, breast fillets, heart, upper wings and gizzards, chilled, frozen or deep-frozen. The raw foie gras is soft, evenly coloured, free of injuries and weighs at least 350 g. A duck breast weighs at least 300 g, is offered with skin and subcutaneous fat and is trimmed to a regular rounded shape; fat and skin make up 25 to 45 % of its weight.

As meat products there are whole foie gras from a complete liver or whole lobes, foie gras from pressed-together pieces of liver, foie gras in a block, dried or dried and smoked duck breast, and confit: legs, wings, breast, upper wings and gizzards salted with dry salt and cooked exclusively in duck fat. They are sold canned, semi-preserved, frozen or deep-frozen.

Production

The ducks are male Barbary or Mulard ducks and live outdoors. Up to the 42nd day their feed consists of at least 50 % cereals and seeds of pulses, then up to force-feeding of at least 70 %, with at least 15 % maize and at most 40 % wheat. Mulard ducks are force-fed from the 81st day, Barbary ducks from the 82nd, for at least ten days with at least 20 meals of whole or crushed maize grains. Each force-feeding portion consists of at least 95 % maize harvested in south-west France.

Rearing, force-feeding, slaughter, cutting and processing take place in the area, as does packing. According to the specification, the meat and offal oxidise easily in the air, and foie gras and confit are heated again after packing to preserve them. If the label names a sub-area such as Gers or Périgord, the product comes from ducks that were reared, force-fed, slaughtered, cut up, processed and packed there.

Origin & history

The area lies mainly in the Aquitaine Basin between the Atlantic, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and Castelnaudary. Fertile plains alternate with hill country; the climate is mild and semi-maritime, with over 900 mm of precipitation a year and plenty of rain in summer. According to the specification, this is why the south-west is a historic maize-growing area: after its introduction in the 16th century, maize replaced millet as feed and soon also as food.

Since the Middle Ages, fattened ducks and geese have been part of the region’s small farms. Until the end of the 17th century the ducks were fattened by letting them eat maize freely in a dark room; towards the end of the 18th century force-feeding with raw or cooked maize as flour or dumplings came into use. Since the 17th century duck meat has been preserved as confit in its own fat, and Nicolas Appert’s preserving process opened up markets beyond the south-west at the end of the 18th century. The “Marchés au gras”, markets for force-fed poultry between late autumn and early spring, also date from this time; they still take place today in Samatan, Seissan, Périgueux, Mont-de-Marsan, Cahors and Montfort-en-Chalosse, for example. Parmentier wrote in 1785 that the duck livers famous throughout Europe owed their qualities to maize alone.