Goose on sale - what can I do with 'em?

[abadoozy]

I've never cooked a goose before. Heck, I'm not sure I've ever even eaten goose. But my local grocery has frozen geese on sale at an amazing $1.99/lb. I don't know that they are particularly high quality - geese aren't exactly in high demand around here - but at that price, I can't pass one up.

So I have one, I think I'm going to confit the whole thing, because Ruhlman says I can in "Charcuterie."

I'm tempted to go buy another one or two. But what to do with them? There's only 2 of us here, and my freezer is (almost) full. (Make that my 3 freezers. <sigh>). I know I could roast one, but I'd rather do something more fun. Sausage? Grilled? Any ideas?

They're the Whetstone Valley geese from here, if it makes a difference.

[rotuts]

do you sous vide?

whatever you do, try to save the fat, re melt it, strain it, and solidify it in the refrig. then you can freeze it in an airtight container with the top of the fat covered with plastic wrap with no air gaps then scoop some out and use it to carefully make skillet potatoes.

excellent winter dish. might not appeal in the summer!

Id use the legs/thighs/'thew oyster' for comfit

Id SV the breast meat.

good luck!

will have a much stonger taste than duck.

save that duck fat BTW also

[abadoozy]

Oh yeah, definitely sous-vide, and definitely keep the fat. I have tons of duck fat in the freezer at the moment and I see no reason why it doesn't need to be joined by goose fat.

I think I'm going to confit this entire goose. Ruhlman doesn't go into why, but in Charcuterie, the Goose Confit recipe uses the entire goose, whereas the duck confit uses only the legs. I'd rather have a lot of confit than a dinner of goose breast, partially because this same grocery store bought a ton of duck breasts around Christmas, nobody bought those either, so I grabbed 'em all on sale and have several nice packages of duck breasts in the freezer for whenever I get a hankering for them.

I'm mostly trying to talk myself into needing to go back and buy the remaining geese, even though I really have no need of them. What about grilled? I finally got the grill out of the garage, what would butterflied and grilled goose be like?

Edited March 28, 2011 by abadoozy (log)

[JBailey]

Have your ever followed Carol Blymire's Alinea at Home blog? Recently, she was working with goose. Also and as she recommends, follow Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardner Cook site for other great recommendations. He has a book coming out that is on my 'must have' list.

[gfweb]

I' sv'd goose breast last christmas and it came out pretty good. In retrospect I wish I'd rendered some of the fat to put in the sv bag to add a bit of flavor back.

[ScoopKW]

If it's still cold/cool where you are, simple roast goose with root vegetables and some Yorkshire pudding is a wonderful thing.

And let me add myself to the list of people saying "save the fat!"

The only thing better than duck fat is goose fat.

EDIT -- At $1.99 a pound, I'd buy ALL of them just for the fat and the organ meat. The rest would be roasted, made into rillets, mixed with ground pork and made into pate, cooked into savory pies (and puff pastries). You name it.

EDIT AGAIN -- Remove the meat from the bones after roasting, and make goose stock. And skim off the fat from your stock and add that to your reserve of goose fat. Even 20 geese won't take up much space once the bones are gone. Yum... five geese worth of rillets, two loaves of pate de campagne, goose liver pate in a terrine, a dozen goose pot pies, three roast geese. A sleeve of garlic poached in goose fat. Five whole gallons of light and brown stock.

(Can you tell I really love goose?)

Edited March 28, 2011 by ScoopKW (log)

[rotuts]

I forgot about rillets

what a great idea. might work fine SV on a 'well done' temp and then be ready to freeze! but thigh would work very nicely.

how come there are no markets near me as fine as yours?

havent made duck is so long!

[abadoozy]

how come there are no markets near me as fine as yours?

Ha! That made me laugh. The only reason I'm getting these is that nobody else in town will buy them. The "market" is nothing more than a small-town chain grocery store. For whatever reason, they occasionally get things like frozen geese in - probably for a holiday - nobody buys them, and later on I grab 'em on sale. Like I said above, I got tons of duck breasts, boned and and frozen in packets of 2, for something crazy like $3.50 a pound over Christmas. They literally were cheaper than chicken breasts.

Someday they'll figure out that nobody buys this stuff and I'll be out of luck again. But for now, I'm going for it.

You guys are giving me great ideas. Keep 'em coming. Anyone care to share recipes for rillettes? I'm sure I could scare some up, but would love to see some tried & true versions.

[abadoozy]

Have your ever followed Carol Blymire's Alinea at Home blog? Recently, she was working with goose. Also and as she recommends, follow Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardner Cook site for other great recommendations. He has a book coming out that is on my 'must have' list.

I had not seen that - I'm reading it now. Thanks for the link.

[rotuts]

I had another thought:

quite some time ago Madeleine Kamman had a PBS (US) cooking show. VHS days. I learned from her the virtues of Blade Roast but also Duck cooked two ways ( same meal )

you boned out the Breast left the skin on and cut out carefully the tendon on the (scraping) smaller pectoral muscle this was the first duck course. you scored the skin, S&P, and started skin side down then flipped it and cooked to as rare as you could stand. you let it rest and the cut thin for course 1

the leg you carefully trimmed the skin fat so it did not over hang and you put those on a stainless steel rack over a pan with some water and "baked" it for 45 min in a very hot oven : 450 degrees

the water allowed the fat drippings to not smoke. at the end for about 10 min more you added some good quality preserves over the top and allowed them to for a crust that was not burnt. as this was a 'sweet' dish hold a lot of your salt.

I wonder it this would work with gooooose!

this at that time was the best duck ive ever made

[Genkinaonna]

PM Shelby, her husband is a hunter and she did goose during her Foodblog...I'm sure she'd share some recipes with you!

[heidih]

PM Shelby, her husband is a hunter and she did goose during her Foodblog...I'm sure she'd share some recipes with you!

Her geese were wild which is much different. Leaner, tougher, gamier...

[Angela Knipple]

My father smokes a goose every year at Christmas. He says the lower/slower cooking helps to keep the meat from being greasy. He stuffs it with apples, onions, pears, cranberries, and raisins and smokes over a mix of cherry and hickory. It's always so good, and the smoke makes for a wonderful stock from the carcass.

[patrickamory]

Sous-vide goose?

Over roast goose?

[SusanGiff]

Slightly off this topic, but now that I know we can get one, I'm wondering: Do we want one? My husband's taking over Xmas dinner duties from his mother for the first time this year, and we're talking about goose, but I don't think either of us have even eaten it before. What's it like? My sense is it'll be more like duck than turkey. Could someone please provide a description, if that's possible?

[rotuts]

Goose is stronger than duck and all 'dark meat'. if you have not had it, Id try it first

I can see a lot of people not liking it.

that being said, its not goat!

[Jmahl]

A friend bought a goose on sale and cooked it on a Weber.

We got to enjoy the results. Give it a try. If you like duck you will like goose.

[rotuts]

that looks Sooooooooooo good!

no goose-ess here on sale or not!

[SusanGiff]

Man, that does look good. ALL the pictures I see of goose look good. I'm not crazy about duck (or goat), but heck, I'll try anything. Thanks.

[gdenby]

My experience with goose is fairly limited. Cooked 5, and ate another. As I have progressed with cooking technique, I have learned how to remove fat, and render out as much fat as possible by slashing the skin all over. Without lots of fat on the meat, I think the flavor is no stronger than turkey dark meat.

So far, the meat is somewhat tougher than turkey.

The quality of the rendered fat is remarkable. My wife asked if I had fried some potatoes in duck fat, because the flavor was so extraordinary. I replied that I had fried them in goose fat, and she said "Best ever."

My own results have improved, but not matched the first goose I ate. It was at a large party, and everything disappeared in a few minutes. It was easily the best bird I've ever tasted.

So my Christmas cook will be another goose.

[rotuts]

you are correct:

the fat from duck and geese must be rendered and kept (frozen ?) for winter potato saute

it is beyond tasty

it will however if not kept well oxidize and well not be better than old axle grease.

[ScoopKW]

We did goose for Thanksgiving, and I think that's our new tradition.

After rendering and saving the fat, the roasted goose (with goose and port gravy) served five. I made a goose/bacon/potato port-gravy pie with the leftovers, using a goosefat/thyme pastry crust. Made stock from the bones.

Goose RULES over turkey.

Edited December 5, 2011 by ScoopKW (log)

[Mjx]

Slightly off this topic, but now that I know we can get one, I'm wondering: Do we want one? My husband's taking over Xmas dinner duties from his mother for the first time this year, and we're talking about goose, but I don't think either of us have even eaten it before. What's it like? My sense is it'll be more like duck than turkey. Could someone please provide a description, if that's possible?

Definitely more like duck than turkey, and very, very good: I roasted one a couple of years back (I used The Perfect Recipe's roast goose recipe, and it went without a single hitch, and the goose was not at all tough), and my boyfriend and his brother – both fairly picky and often conservative eaters – had to be practically restrained, so that the rest of us could have a go at it.

During the early phase of roasting it does have an odd odour, but that's gone by the time it's done. Another nice thing about it is that it is quite tolerant of overcooking (at least domestic goose is), so you're unlikely to dry it out if your oven runs hot.

To put it another way:

. . . .Goose RULES over turkey.

Hell, yeah!

[patrickamory]

Heartily agreed - goose is fantastic, way better than turkey and much easier to cook. In fact, it's hard to go wrong. I've never encountered anyone who didn't enjoy it.

I believe the rendered fat will keep in the fridge for months - no need to freeze it. The goose will produce cups of it.

Unlike duck, the goose releases most of its fat in the roasting process - you won't have that extra layer remaining between skin and meat, for better or worse.

[ScoopKW]

Heartily agreed - goose is fantastic, way better than turkey and much easier to cook. In fact, it's hard to go wrong. I've never encountered anyone who didn't enjoy it.

I believe the rendered fat will keep in the fridge for months - no need to freeze it. The goose will produce cups of it.

Unlike duck, the goose releases most of its fat in the roasting process - you won't have that extra layer remaining between skin and meat, for better or worse.

I pull the fat from the body cavity, cut the big flaps of skin, cut off the pope's nose, and toss it all in a saucier with a little water and simmer it down for an hour. I get about 1/3 of my total fat yield that way.

But I agree. Most of the gold lies in the bottom of the roasting pan.