What is the best way to cook a goose?
I roasted my first goose last Christmas.I checked my general cookbooks like Joy of Cooking and Settlement Cook Book and read a number of on-line recipes.Goose has a lot of fat. The meat will not come out dry as long as you follow the general suggestions of your recipe.This is pretty close to the procedure I followed but I did not remove the extra fat before I put the bird in the oven and I did not make a gravy from the goose.http://www.simplyrecipes.com/rec...Don't stuff it. The body proportions are very different than a turkey or capon.Make stuffing separately if at all.Use a deep sided light colored roasting pan ( not a dark enameled one) and place it on a rack to keep the bottom out of the melted fat as it roasts.Use a turkey baster to baste while roasting but also to remove melted fat during the roasting process. The skin will crisp nicely while roasting. I removed the skin and made cracklings for myself from the leftovers. Very good snacking for a cold January weekend.Save the fat. It keeps nicely in a covered jar in the fridge and can be used for a lot of things. I made roasted potatoes with the goose fat and they were very good.Goose is all dark meat and is rich tasting. It needs a tart slightly sweet sauce. Try redcurrant jelly melted with some orange and lemon juice or look for a recipe for Cumberland Sauce. Very easy to make and really is good with the meatI had leftover meat which I bagged and froze. For Easter I made chicken liver pate and put t some of the goose meat shreds and goose fat in the food processor to be mixed with the chicken liver. It was worth it.
Help cooking fresh goose?
You need to get a bucket of boiling water and immerse the goose in it for about 10 minutes. Then take it out and start plucking the feathers off (after it has cooled down a bit. Make sure you wear appropriate gloves) When all the feathers are removed, roast it lightly over an open flame or blow torch to burn off the excess tiny hairlike feathers. Take out the intestines by slitting the butt towards the breast and pulling all the stuff out. Wash the bird and pat dry with paper towels. Rub it with some olive oil, then dust it with any herbs that you like such as Italians mixed herbs, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and cumin. Let it sit in the refrigerator for 2 hours so that the spices soak in the bird. Put it in a baking pan and let it roast for about 1 1/2 hour at 350 degrees (depending on its size) Baste it every 20 minutes with its own juices. Let it cool down for 10-15 minutes before cutting into it.
Why did the English stop eating goose at Christmas?
Because it is much more expensive than the main alternative, turkey, and not worth the price for most people.This goose sells for £75 in Waitrose or £13.60 per kg. In the same shop, you can get a turkey for about £10 per kg, 25% cheaper. There is also a much wider range of places which sell turkey compared to goose and better deals available— most Tescos and Sainsbury's birds go for under £50.Goose is also lot more bony than the average turker and probably has half the amount of meat for it’s size, so whilst you will be paying more you will also get much less for your money. A 5kg turkey can feed six people with enough left over for several days of curries, cold meat etc. A 5kg goose can be almost finished off by four people, with not much left over.Roast goose can be tasty, but it is also quite fatty and difficult to cook. It requires some different techniques and seasoning compared to chicken, which is probably the meat which Brits are most familiar with.There must have been numerous culinary disasters when British cooks tried to roast a goose without taking into account the need to somehow render or remove the high levels of fat under it's skin. Combined with it's relatively low meat to fat and bone ratio and different cooking requirements- it can be served slightly pink, unlike chicken and turkey- and you could easily end up with a nasty combination of fatty and overcooked.Turkey, on the other hand, isn't very different from a huge chicken. You need to cook it for longer, and it goes better with some different flavours, but anyone who can roast a chicken proficiently can more or less manage it on their first try. For the average cook, it's easier and they will most likely get a better result.Whilst some people find turkey meat more bland, the taste quality difference between a decently cooked turkey and a slightly less well cooked goose isn't very large, and for most people it probably isn't worth paying more.My family had goose at Christmas a couple of years ago, and agreed that it was a) very nice, and b) not worth it for the cost.NOTE: There are also some great answers here which cover the historical reasons why the British switched from goose to turkey. It is definitely worth buying the fat to make roast potatoes though…
Do you cook for Christmas Dinner?
Oh, yes! Thanksgiving too!Often, though, since we’re in several “clans”, the cooking won’t be on that particular day. For example, we usually do our big turkey dinner on Black Friday or the following Saturday; most of our clans are somewhat distant, so we do a sequel meal for friends and family.And Yuletide gets complex, since our various clans include both Jews and Pagans (we are Pagan but not Jewish ourselves). At some point there will be a Yuletide Goose, shared with others depending on schedules. If my husband and I are alone for Christmas itself, we generally do something special then, too.And someday I want to do a Boar’s Head!Our family get-together for the past few years has been at my husband’s ex-wife’s sister’s house- we’re good friends with her and her husband, as we were with his ex before she tragically died of cancer. We all miss her- she was a warm and lovely person. This is usually around New Year’s. We’ve brought goose, and last year a capon, which she especially requested.I love festival foods!
What are some good tips for cooking a goose or duck?
The biggest "issue" with goose is the fat. There's an enormous quantity of it. What you do with/about it is up to you, but one thing that must be done is to remove it from the baking pan -- frequently -- during the roasting. The same applies to duck, though to a lesser degree.You start by removing the masses of fat found on the bird before you start cooking it. You can reserve this for rendering or dispose of it if you're not going to be using the fat for other purposes.The bird needs to be pricked all over, not just in a few spots, to allow the fat to more easily drain while cooking. Puncture the skin, but don't go so deep that you're puncturing the flesh.Several times during the cooking, you need to remove excess fat from the pan. I find using a bulb baster to be the easiest way of doing this. I put the fat into a container that will go into the refrigerator for later use. A 12-lb goose can produce 4 cups of fat!Goose and duck are denser than chicken or turkey. They cook much quicker, on a per-pound basis, than do the other fowl. Keep an eye on them or they can easily overcook -- and don't forget about carry-over heat when you take them out of the oven.Both duck and goose have a lower meat-to-bone ratio. You need to keep this in mind when you're figuring out how big a bird you need to serve X people. A 5-lb duck can serve three or four, or maybe only two if you're big eaters. A 12-lb goose will serve four or six, with leftovers.As far as seasonings go, I stuff the bird's cavity with a combination of wedges of onion, apple, and orange, along with either sage or bay leaves. The stuffing serves only to add (very) slight flavor to the bird and is discarded after cooking. There's too much fat rendered from the bird to allow the stuffing to be eaten.
How do I cook a wild skinned goose?
I would like to have an old fashion goose dinner for Christmas. any ideas? Can I cook this goose in a cooking bag ? would that prevent it from drying out? I think putting bacon over it would help. and how long would I cook it? less time than one with skin I think. Everyone have a wonderful thanksgiving.
What does your family cook for Christmas dinner, and is there a story behind it?
Ever since our kid grew up, we’ve been rather flexible about Christmas celebrations. My husband and I usually make something special, but what depends on the year, and what other gatherings we’ll be going to.However, EVERY Yuletide, we make a roast goose. It’s pricey, but that’s OK for a special treat- and we save the fat for cooking the rest of the year- mostly for potatoes. Goose/duck fat is the BEST with potatoes!We started doing goose because it seemed so special and Dickensian- and we’d just had turkey on Thanksgiving!If we’re making goose for a non-Christmasget-together, my husband and I usually cook either a small prime rib roast, or a small ham… although someday I will make a turducken!
Which mistakes should a beginner avoid when cooking a Christmas pudding?
Number one mistake — starting too late. A pudding takes time! Whatever the recipe calls for, start a couple of days early. Puddings age well; they don't do well if the prep time is shortened.
Why is goose out of most British Christmas menus despite being a much more tender and tastier meat?
I will venture a couple of possibilities. The first is that for goose, despite being a more traditional adornment to British Christmas tables than turkey it is much more expensive pound for pound, meaning it doesn’t go as far as the infamous endless Xmas turkey. The cost probably puts it either out of reach of households or simply to costly if entertaining the whole family.Additionally, goose* much like duck whilst delicious is a fatty animal and during cooking much ( prized ) fat will render from the bird. This may put some more health conscious diners off.*most geese will be farmed and therefore have more fat than a wild bird much like farmed chickens have fat where wild birds tend to be lean.Cooked well, goose is delicious, if You’ve not tried it and have the opportunity to, then do.
Why don’t people eat a Christmas goose anymore which was prevalent even in the 1990s?
I have done goose twice for Christmas: once in the 1990s and again after the turn of the century. I’d like to do it once more before I die, but since I live with a mostly-vegan woman, it’d have to be in a larger setting: a group meal with family/friends or at church.It’s expensive. I haven’t checked prices for almost 15 years, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a good goose is now approaching (or exceeding) three figures. They don’t grow millions of them, the way they do turkeys or chickens; plus, they tend to be (on average) larger than turkeys.And it can be a mess: the first time I did goose, I did it myself, and I didn’t have a large roaster pan. I tented it with foil instead. I checked three or more recipes online and was told that the cooking temp was 450 Fahrenheit. I and my guests went away on a boat trip (I lived along a small urban lake then), and came back to find my landlady in a panic because the goose had caught fire! Some grease had spattered and ignited. (Like an idiot, she threw water on it.)So we had to finish it at a much lower temperature of 250 degrees, as that was the highest setting where the grease wouldn’t boil and spatter and catch fire. When it finally came out, it was very interesting: because of the higher fat content, it was brown and more like beef than the poultry we’re all used to. Although it took a bit longer than expected, the dinner was definitely a success.The second time, one of my housemates was a dedicated amateur chef with the proper equipment (i.e., a large roaster pan). The cooking-of proceeded without incident. However, at least two of the people at dinner said that they “hated” goose because (apparently) they’d had it forced on them when they were young. One of them tried it and found that his childish dislike was definitely a thing of the past he could get over!If you’re hosting a large Christmas dinner with more than one centerpiece dish, I would definitely recommend giving goose a try. It’s not something that most people will want to do frequently, but as a very occasional holiday treat it’s the real deal. Have fun with it! — and if one of those other main dishes is a boar’s head, you’ve definitely met your quota of traditional Christmas meats!