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Cooking my Goose


magnolia

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  • 3 months later...

It's been near 20 years since I last cooked a goose but I just scored 3 frozen free range (what the hell is that with a goose) gesse at a price that I couldn't resist. The last time I cooked a goose I did it in an oven bag. Now with e-g, food tv, and my own experimenting I"d like to try 3 new ways to cook these fine, formerly feathered friends.

What about goose confit? Barbecued goose? Smoked goose? Is there an asian style of cooked goose? Any and all ideas on this one are appreciated.

Charles a food and wine addict - "Just as magic can be black or white, so can addictions be good, bad or neither. As long as a habit enslaves it makes the grade, it need not be sinful as well." - Victor Mollo

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In Taiwan, a lot of geese are boiled and served with julienned ginger and dipping sauces.

Goose confit or rillettes would be really nice (I had an opportunity to taste rillettes made by James Mcguire - wow). I did a goose magret once but that wasn't quite the success that I had in mind. Barbecue makes me think of flare-ups, but smoking one would be interesting.

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Goose is the original confit - all that fat. Essential for cassoulet

Smoked good breast is good - uncooked, sliced thin, like parma ham

I like plain roast best of all, witha potato stuffing

There are various local stews (aligote) featuring goose giblets

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Jackal10's suggestion about stuffing with potatoes reminds me of my goose adventure one Christmas.

A Cajun friend let me in on his family recipe for goose. Basically, you stuff it with well seasoned potatoes, quartered into chunks. Then you line the bottom of the pan with more potatoes. The well seasoned goose is then wrapped in bacon. (In many forms of Cajun cookery, "well seasoned" means more spices than you think is sane.)

Well, I did all of this. The bird was artfully wrapped in bacon. Think the intricate mummy wrappings that you see in The British Museum.

The star of the show later emerged from the oven as the most gorgeous goose known to man. The bacon and skin was wonderfully crisp and lovely.

But . . . Good Lord, the fat! Can you say confit of potato?

I have a sneaking suspicion that the recipe was intended for a lean goose, recently shot. I did have the presence of mind to save the ocean of fat for sauteing veggies and more potatoes.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Send one of those geese my way! I've only cooked goose once. Since it was so expensive (somewhere in the neighborhood of $70), I used every bit of it I could. I made goose stock and goose carcass gumbo. Every once in a while, my husband asks when we're going to have that gumbo again. He's never asked about the goose itself.

- kim

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Carl Sagan

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WOW! $70 for a goose? Where did you find that? I see frozen goose all the time in the grocery. I don't recall them being any more expensive that say, duck or capon.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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$5 X weight =, 10 lbs $50, 12lb $60. Kinda depends how big a goose you get. Is $5 a pound outa line ? Around here that would be special order, because nobody carries Goose. :biggrin:

Bruce Frigard

Quality control Taster, Château D'Eau Winery

"Free time is the engine of ingenuity, creativity and innovation"

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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Whole Foods. I can't remember the exact price to be honest. It was somewhere between $65 and $80. I thought the price outrageous as well and I've been trying to forget.

Their prices for other game type birds are outrageous as well. A package of frozen quail for $14. Today I paid $6.95 for 6 quail (1-1/2 pounds) at an Asian market.

But I'm getting off-topic.

If I could find goose in Chicago at a reasonable price, I would be all over it.

- kim

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Carl Sagan

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The less you do with goose, the better. The fat makes it self-basting, and the taste of the meat is rather mild (unlike duck), so you don't want strong flavors mixed with it.

I use a great and super-simple method from Shumacker's Hotel in New Prague, MN. The wet roasting melts out all the subcutaneous fat.

Pull out excess fat from the neck and vent and reserve to render for many wonderful purposes.

Cut off the wings at the elbow, remove the liver, heart, gizzard and neck from the cavity and scatter everything over the bottom of an oval roaster.

Wash the bird thoroughly inside and out.

Rub salt, pepper and caraway seeds inside and out.

Put a large whole peeled onion in the cavity.

Put the bird on top of wings, etc., breast up.

Pour 1 quart of water around the bird, cover and cook at 350 for 3-1/2 hours or until done. It's done when you can pull the legs in opposite directions and they don't spring back.

Drain the liquids and return the pan to the oven, uncovered, 10 minutes to dry and crisp the skin.

Red cabbage, cooked with the fat you pull from the cavity, is the perfect accompaniment. Add caraway seeds here, too. They'll be quite different from the crisped ones on the goose.

Edited by k43 (log)
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There's a great recipe for stuffed goose neck in the Hugh F-W book.

I did this recipe at Christmas. It is actually goose done 3 ways and served as 3 separate courses:

1. The neck is stuffed with the giblets end neck meat to make a rustic sausage (cooked in the goose fat with the confit)

2. The legs are made into confit (I threw the wings in too)

3. The breast is roasted and sliced thinly lengthways.

As your geese are frozen, you may not have enough of the neck skin left to use as a casing for the sausage. I had this problem even with a fresh goose, but tied the sausage up in muslin instead, and this worked very well.

This is a delicious way to serve goose and it is not at all as daunting as it sounds. On the day, there is really very little to do as most of the work has been done in advance. I got the recipe from Saturday's Telegraph (4/12/04), so you can probably get it from their website.

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The less you do with goose, the better.  The fat makes it self-basting, and the taste of the meat is rather mild (unlike duck), so you don't want strong flavors mixed with it.

I use a great and super-simple method from Shumacker's Hotel in New Prague, MN.  The wet roasting melts out all the subcutaneous fat.

Pull out excess fat from the neck and vent and reserve to render for many wonderful purposes.

Cut off the wings at the elbow, remove the liver, heart, gizzard and neck from the cavity and scatter everything over the bottom of an oval roaster.

Wash the bird thoroughly inside and out.

Rub salt, pepper and caraway seeds inside and out.

Put a large whole peeled onion in the cavity.

Put the bird on top of wings, etc., breast up.

Pour 1 quart of water around the bird, cover and cook at 350 for 3-1/2 hours or until done.  It's done when you can pull the legs in opposite directions and they don't spring back.

Drain the liquids and return the pan to the oven, uncovered, 10 minutes to dry and crisp the skin.

Red cabbage, cooked with the fat you pull from the cavity, is the perfect accompaniment.  Add caraway seeds here, too.  They'll be quite different from the crisped ones on the goose.

Schumachers always does a great job with game. One of the things I miss most from the time I lived in Minnetonka is going down to Schumachers. Need some of their rolls with the fruit inside as well!

Charles a food and wine addict - "Just as magic can be black or white, so can addictions be good, bad or neither. As long as a habit enslaves it makes the grade, it need not be sinful as well." - Victor Mollo

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have never made cabbage. Red or otherwise. Seems that I'm coming across recipes calling for cabbage and I started seriously thinking about making goose again. Until I went to Whole Foods. Frozen goose - $95. I didn't even look at the price per pound. Looks like goose won't be on my menu after all. :angry:

- kim

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Carl Sagan

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I have never made cabbage. Red or otherwise. Seems that I'm coming across recipes calling for cabbage and I started seriously thinking about making goose again. Until I went to Whole Foods. Frozen goose - $95. I didn't even look at the price per pound. Looks like goose won't be on my menu after all.  :angry:

- kim

Wow! I have never seen them that expensive.

...I see frozen goose all the time in the grocery. I don't recall them being any more expensive that say, duck or capon.

Same here. We don't pay more than $30.00 when we get them from Publix, and usually under $20.00 each.

Kim, I definitely wouldn't pay that much either. I hope you have success shopping around for a good price.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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I'm headed to Texas next week. If I can find goose for $30 or less, I'll pick it and bring it back to Chicago.

- kim

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Carl Sagan

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  • 5 months later...

Thought I'd give the wife a goose for Canadian Thanksgiving - looking for a really good stuffing. I have an Alsatian fall-back - prunes stuffed with liver pate that sort of melds and becomes greater than either when cooked, but thought someone might have an interesting alternative.

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Potato stuffing is traditional. In fact I'm doing it this weekend,

My version is dry mashed potato, onion, salt and pepper, but also some peeled and chopped apple and a little sage. Can add the liver.

Not fat since there will be plenty from the goose.

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If you're going to use a commercial goose rather than a wild goose, be aware that the goose will render enormous quantities of fat. Stuffing will absorb much of this fat, and may be unpalatable. You ought to consider cooking the stuffing separately.

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise. --- Henry David Thoreau
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  • 2 months later...

So I have committed to do a goose for our Christmas Eve party this year. The plan is to stuff then braise the goose a la Julia Child then (maybe) blast it under the broiler at the end to crisp up the skin.

I have never cooked a goose before, so today I did a "practice goose" -- this one was roasted in a very conventional way in the oven. The goose was a 9.6 pound "Whetstone Valley" goose that I'd gotten from Fresh Market here in Nashville. The main purposes of this goose were threefold: (1) to familiarize myself at least a bit with goose cookery, (2) to render and collect goose fat for the Christmas dishes, (3) to obtain a roasted goose carcass for making goose stock, also to be used in the Christmas dishes.

I just took the "practice goose" out of the oven, and although I haven't cut into it yet, the first thing I noticed was that there appear to be quills sticking out of it..

goose-005.jpg

Is this normal? I don't want to serve quills! Should I perhaps buy a different brand next time?

(I may be asking more goose-related questions as the weeks progress...!)

Don Moore

Nashville, TN

Peace on Earth

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Yes, its normal.

You can pull them out with pliers.

I would seriously consider cooking the stuffing separately out of the goose - may a token amount at the neck end, otherwise its going to get very fatty.

You can also take the neck off and stuff it separately.

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Yes, its normal.

You can pull them out with pliers.

I would seriously consider cooking the stuffing separately out of the goose - may a token amount at the neck end, otherwise its going to get very fatty.

You can also take the neck off and stuff it separately.

I second Jackel10's advice: don't stuff a domestic goose because the fat will saturate the stuffing and make it inedible. You should blanch the goose first and then roast it for an hour, then pour off the accumulated fat, then continue the roasting.

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise. --- Henry David Thoreau
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Thanks for the advice so far. After letting this practice roast goose rest for a bit, I have cut into it and the meat is really very good -- tastes like prime rib, which isn't really what I was expecting, and nearly all of the fat seems to have rendered off -- I have saved that. However, one whole breast yielded only maybe four slices of meat, so I'll probably end up supplementing the meat part with a bit of ham or something.

What are people's thoughts on the prospect of braising the actual Christmas goose versus roasting it just the way I did it this time? This meat, though not terribly juicy, is very flavorful. Perhaps brining and then roasting (which is what I do with duck, turkey, and chicken) would be the way to go?

Don Moore

Nashville, TN

Peace on Earth

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