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

[rotuts]

guess ill be roasting a (Frozen) goose soon.

or should it be SV with external fat rendering?

if SV Breast Time and temp? leg/thigh time and temp?

[jrshaul]

At that price, I'd be eating a lot of goose. I'm lucky if I can pay that for factory chicken.

[Dignan]

I've never done one. I checked the local market and they have two frozen geese at $5.99 per pound. Is that a good/bad/neutral price in folkses experience? They also had two capons, which I've also not had. I didn't register how much they wanted for them, though.

ETA: Woo Hoo, the 500 post mark in approx 8 years!

Edited December 9, 2011 by Dignan (log)

[Sidney]

Goose is vastly superior to turkey except when it comes to carving you will be lucky to get 6 meals of a goose its no good buying a larger one the extra weight wiil be all fat in the bottom of the pan.Goose is one of the few meats that freezes well.Frozen turkey is best fed to the dog.

[rotuts]

SV turkey freezes quite well.

[Icanmakeit]

I'm not so sure I would jump on this one other than to cook down for the fat. While fantasies of a magazine cover goose might be nice, you probably aren't going to get it with a frozen $1.99 per pound goose.

This is a fire sale price and there is probably a reason why the goose is so cheap. Getting old, freezer burned etc

I might roast it thawed, save the fat, use the meat in a casserole or soup.

[qrn]

the last one I cooked, we only ate the totally tastless breast,and used all the rest for goose fat

Bud

[andiesenji]

I used to prepare goose for Christmas, I've handled a lot of wild birds, shot by hunters and passed on to me because their family either didn't like the birds or weren't willing to do the prep. The wild ones do have to be hung for at least a couple of days.

Domestic geese can be problematic. They can be very good, so-so or pretty bad. Much depends on how and what they are fed.

The best geese I ever taster were Kosher.

When I lived down below, I used to get my geese from a kosher butcher in North Hollywood. The manner in which they are made kosher seems to make them much easier to cook.

Not all geese are candidates for the koshering process, I don't know the details, only what I was told. Some breeds or types are not on the allowed list.

As the koshering process involves soaking in salt water, I would think that using a brine, similar to that used for turkey would give you a better result. It's not just to add moisture to the meat.

[patrickamory]

Andie, really! I'm surprised. I don't think I've ever met a goose I didn't like.

Mind you, when we lived in Boston, my dad used to get the Christmas goose from Savenor's. And I think every goose I've made here in New York has come from Ottomanelli or Florence Meat Market.

Last Christmas, my sister-in-law bought a heritage goose from a farm near her outside of Albany.

It's possible that none of these geese bear any resemblance to the domestic goose of which you speak.

We always cook them via the James Beard method - I think from 'Delights and Prejudices' - with prune and sausage stuffing.

[andiesenji]

Patrick, California is not exactly goose country. Growing up we raised our own geese and they were wonderful (and huge). During the few years I lived in Wisconsin in the mid '50s there was no problem with getting excellent geese.

Out here, I have purchased geese that were okay, a few that were pretty good and some that were awful. They are only available frozen, except from the very high end markets and from kosher butcher shops.

Several years ago I was thawing a goose and found a solid block of ice inside that was a significant portion of the weight of the bird.

I took it back to the market, showed my receipt indicating it was purchased two days prior and was accused of substituting one I had stored in my freezer for a long period.

Needless to say, I hit the ceiling! I marched back to the meat section, selected and paid for another goose and asked the butcher to saw it in half. This bird was also full of ice. Somewhere along the line they had been thawed and re-frozen, the only way for this effect to occur. I then watched while the meat manager removed all the birds from the freezer section and marked the labels with a black marker.

I was refunded the money for both birds. I now rarely shop at that market but the same manager is there and he remembers me...

[patrickamory]

Incredible story. That definitely sounds like a market to avoid...

[edit: I always think of Southern California as food paradise, a place where you can get just about any ingredient, fresh & superb...]

Edited December 11, 2011 by patrickamory (log)

[andiesenji]

Incredible story. That definitely sounds like a market to avoid...

[edit: I always think of Southern California as food paradise, a place where you can get just about any ingredient, fresh & superb...]

As in many things, it is "location, location, location." The Antelope Valley is like the poor step-child of L.A. County. Lancaster, where I live, has a population over 150,000 and Palmdale (next door) almost as many but many marketers still think of this area as an empty desert.

We got a Trader Joe's several years ago, after thousands of letters from local consumers but Whole Foods still ignores us and Fresh and Easy ditto. The nearest Whole Foods is in Santa Clarita, a minimum 45 minute drive for me if the traffic is light.

We have no Williams-Sonoma, no Sur La Table either.

[JBailey]

Food Network ran a show again last night from Disneyland that was hosted by Guy Fieri. In one segment, the chef (possibly Andrew Sutton) at the Napa Rose restaurant showed Fieri how he does goose. Abridged, he does a brine with cider, cider vinegar I believe, salt, peppercorns, et. al. and simmers/boils the goose for not a long period of time, followed by roasting it in a Rotisol rotisserie. I would believe there is a way to duplicate this at home.