31 January 2021

How now, brown cow?

I doubt that most people think of cattle country when they think of the Dordogne, which is a French département or county. Castles, yes. Foie gras, yes. Geese and ducks, yes. But beef cattle? The two breeds of beef cattle produced in the Dordogne are la limousine (brown) and la blonde d'Aquitaine (beige or white). La Dordogne accounts for about a third of the beef cattle raised in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, which is nearly 10 times larger, and of which the Limousin region is a part. Here's a slideshow featuring some of the bovines I photographed in the Dordogne.



The old name for what is now called La Dordogne was Le Périgord. La Dordogne is part of a big French administrative region called La Nouvelle-Aquitaine that was created about five years ago by combining three previously existing regions: Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes, and Limousin. La Nouvelle Aquitaine covers about 84,000 km² of territory in southwestern France. That's approximately 32,500 mi², which is about the size of South Carolina, Maine, or Maryland. The area of the Dordogne is just 9,060 km², or about 3,500 mi². That makes it bigger than Delaware but smaller than Connecticut.

By the way, annual consumption per capita of beef in France is about 70 lbs. In the U.S. it's about 80 lbs., as best I can determine. The French eat more and more hamburgers, but I'm sure France can't compare to the U.S. when it comes to 'burgers. In fact, just found a French web site that says the French consume 1.7 billion hamburgers a year, while Americans consume nearly 50 billion! Another site says that Americans consume 2.4 hamburgers per day, but that can't be true. Can it? Some 85% of the restaurants in France now have hamburgers on their menu.

17 comments:

  1. Before WWII, from time to time, I used to eat raw bifteck haché with stromg mustard. That was very good. It was before we imported the American hamburger, not an improvement.

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    1. On the second photo of this nice slideshow, I guess the man is brushing the hide of that steer. Farmers are taking care of their farm animals.

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    2. Steak tartare. They used to do a very good one down at the Crêpiot restaurant in Saint-Aignan, but the woman whose specialty it was has now retired.

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    3. I think hamburgers might be something that you need to learn to like as a child. Like andouille and andouillette...

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    4. I guess you're right.

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    5. To be comfortable with eating raw or even rare-cooked beef, you have to feel sure that the beef is perfectly fresh and not contaminated in any way. In a small country like France, with less industrial agriculture and shorter shipping distances, it's easier to attain that level of comfort. I say that even though I can remember being really sick here in France after eating under-cooked beefsteak. And after eating raw oysters — I've vowed never to eat them again. I also won't eat steak haché unless I've seen the butcher grind it or have ground it myself.

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    6. I used to make a point of having tartare in France, because I felt comfortable doing so. I'd never do this in the US. Though sometimes it is on menus here.

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  2. 50 billion / 330 million = 15 burgers per person, per year. ;-)

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    1. When I divide 50,000,000,000 by 330,000,000, I get 151. Am I doing something wrong?

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    2. 151.5151515151515 et ainsi de suite.

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    3. You are both correct. My old HP 12C cuts off one digit before 50 billion. So....an average of about 1 burger every other day. Yes, that's a lot. I bet none of us eat that many....

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    4. And yet some public figures reportedly dine on nothing else. Perhaps that takes up some of the numerical slack?
      I eat burgers occasionally, but perhaps once a month, or once every other month, so my consumption isn't going to help the national average much.

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    5. I should have said that every American eats approximately
      151.5151515151515151515151515151515151515151515151515 burgers over the course of a year.

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  3. Now, if you include "vegie-burgers" - I would agree with you!

    Mary in Oregon

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    1. You've reminded me that we have half a dozen home-made veggie burgers in the freezer downstairs. We can have one each for lunch over the next week, but not until we have our crêpes tomorrow for the Chandeleur.

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