He makes some quite interesting points, especially concerning fat metabolism. Especially the part about what he calls fiaf, the influence of gut bacteria on fat storage, fascinating.

Hey gallier2–

MRE

I myself raised an orphaned baby goldfinch to adulthood. When he was two weeks old, I fed him with an eyedropper in the mouth, which is dangerous and could lead to pneumonia. I didn’t have experience or the proper pipettes- however, all the literature I read on the subject told me that handfed baby birds are generally fed in that manner, with a tube (or pipette) down their throat directly into the crop. (This isn’t recommended for people who are not professionals because there is a danger of aspirating the baby if you accidentally miss the crop and get the food into their lungs.)

The babies are grateful for the food and beg for more by flapping their wings and peeping and opening their mouths!

Excellent point! Thanks for the comment.

MRE

I should have guessed that the Les Halles Cook Book would already be part of the Eades’ culinary references. You may also already have Jacques Pepin’s ‘Complete Techniques,’ which is another one of my favorites (I’m a huge Alton Brown fan, too). In Pepin’s book, he has a section for ‘larding’ meats, where they’d take strips of lard and basically ‘sew’ them into larger roasts. Of course he has the usual caveat about that no longer being common due to low-fat and health concerns, but he includes it for ‘completeness.’ Have you or MD ever tried that? How did it turn out? I’m thinking it might be a good option for free-range, grass-fed beef which doesn’t tend to have the ‘marbling’ that grain/corn fed beef does.

Of course, using lard may not be any better than eating well marbled corn fed beef, either. I don’t know.

Hey Bob–

MRE

He was right; I was wrong.

MRE

He’s not a strict low-carb advocate by any means, but he’s a BIG supporter of how people ‘used’ to eat (As in past centuries), meaning A LOT of animal products, using just about every SCRAP of the animal, organ meats, fat, using the bones for stock, etc. He even has recipes for veal and foi-gras, with some commentary about his take on animal cruelty (Something like, ‘I’m generally against animal cruelty, but if I tasted that good after being locked up in a pen most of my life, I couldn’t blame you for trying…’).

I might have quoted the book in a previous post. I remember something you’d posted before making me look up his section on ‘Pig,’ probably something to the effect of ‘a highly intelligent animal died so you could have bacon, so make sure to enjoy it’ or something along those lines.

And read through his recipe for ‘Cote De Bouef’ for his opinions on certain government recommendations, too (See previous comment about his use of the ‘F-word’).

Hey Bob–

MRE

My apologies to MD- I confused the segment you posted from her blog with the one beneath it from Michael Pollan- “But do we have any reason to believe that feeding ducks and geese corn through tubes put down their throats is any more brutal than snipping off tails and beaks?” My point was that the fact that it’s no MORE brutal doesn’t mean it’s OK. The “two wrongs” argument, etc.

I can’t help but wonder.. if this video was made to assuage the fears that animal lovers have about foie gras, wouldn’t it make sense to show their time outdoors on film? Most animal rights people consider this a very important part of an animal’s life. We saw everyone else out in the sunshine, just not the ducks.

I love your blog, and thank you for the personal response. That’s something Dr. Joseph Mercola NEVER manages.

-Laura

Hi Laura–

Cheers–
MRE

The video posted is a welcome breath of fresh air in the face of all the anti-foie films out there. Some call those other videos “animal snuff films,” and with good reason. It is clear that many have been overly edited and do not represent actual foie gras farming. To learn more about how these videos have been made recently and historically, check out http://www.furcommission.com/news/newsC7.htm .

Hi Lizzie–

MRE

Hi Laura–