plllog, I have to admit I'm not a big fan of goose or duck. However, you might check Alton Brown's method. If remember right from what I've read, his has good feedback.

My flatmate in San Francisco used Julia Child's method:

I remember it being good, but that was over 30 years ago.

I guess if you had one of those bulb siphons you could siphon off the fat at regular intervals to cut down on the amount in the pan. I have heard stories of the fat catching fire.

Linda is spot on. I have one change, with a higher rack, add about a half inch or more of hot water and cover the bird with foil. Roast for about 1/2 to 3/4 hour to let the fat drip out. Remove the foil and let the water evaporate. As the fat builds in the bottom, remove it before it can burn/turn too dark. SAVE THIS! Remember that the stuffing is full of excess fat and you may not want to eat it. If you have any drippings, you can make a gravy, but it will not be much. Being German I would serve with red cabbage and potato dumplings.

Remember the goose fat you saved? You can use it for frying or you can make goose schmaltz. Saute some onions and apples, stir into the fat and serve with a good rye bread with a liberal shake of salt. Yes, it is a heart attack on bread but so good once a year and you can drink all the vodka you like.

Goose is very expensive. Most expensive meat if you take away the skin, fat, bones, etc. $120 for a 10 lb goose, $50 lb meat?

The best way to roast a delicious goose is to rotisserie roast a goose. IMHO.

Come to think of it, Canada geese is no longer a protected (Schedule 5 of the Wildlife Act) animal :-)

dcarch

Thanks, everybody!

Not a Canada goose. Just a plain, domestic, not too big, farm goose from a local humane grower. For years my idea to try making a goose was shouted down. I love duck (but cooked! I don't like med-rare duck at all), though I rarely get a chance to make it. This is my first goose.

The Times also said about pricking all over to let the fat drip. I'm glad for the into to do it partway through as well. I do have a good bulb baster for removing fat, and my butcher no longer carries the little tubs of beautiful duck fat so I'll make good use of it. I wouldn't want it to catch fire! No rotisserie where I'll be cooking it. I don't think that oven will even fit my goose pot (which I use for turkeys). So tall rack in open roasting pan is probably going to be the deal. There's one there.

I did order the goose this afternoon. I like the sound of the fruit stuffing if it permeates the bird.

I've also read a lot about using cloves with goose. I do like the idea of spice, though I have to wonder if the cloves are to cover the whiff of decay. My goose won't have been hanging all Fall, but in a good freezer. :)

I'm planning to serve it with some odd potatoes that are oversize for fingerling, but that shape and half the size of a regular potato, a green salad, and asparagus if matchsticks are still in the store that week. Maybe some little carrots cooked with the potatoes, maybe in the goose fat. Martha's pumpkin cobbler for dessert. It's a little rich for post-goose, but I think it matches better than fresh fruit.

My stepdad disliked turkey and always wanted a goose for Christmas (which are very hard to get here). When DD was about 3, we moved to the country town where we have lived ever since. On the local grocery store notice board I saw someone had pinned up a card offering geese for Christmas, so I ordered one.

On delivery day, the vendor turned up and handed me a hessian sack that was moving. I froze like a deer in headlights. “It’s still alive? What do we do with it?” I quailed. “Your DH has his police revolver, doesn’t he?” the guy joked (police revolvers here are kept securely locked in the station gun cabinet when the police officer issued it is not on duty) as he left.

I called a lady I knew who I also knew killed and dressed her own chickens for advice. She advised me to dispatch it, let it hang overnight and bring it over first thing in the morning.

Making sure DD was busy playing in her room (not wanting to traumatise her), we took the goose out to the backyard where there was a large tractor tire sandpit that DD played in. We stretched the goose’s neck across the side of the tyres and DH quickly beheaded it with a very sharp machete we used to cut down weeds in the yard (when we moved in it was very overgrown), while I held onto it so it didn’t go wandering around headless in the yard- that was a visual I was keen to avoid.

Note: Don’t do this next to a Super-6 fence. Even if you hose off the blood straight away, you’ll always be able to tell where the bloodstains were if you look closely enough.

We hung the goose overnight in the (empty) chicken house where DD couldn’t see it.

Next morning I took to the lady I knew, who expertly plucked and dressed it for me. I took it to stepdad, who was very pleased, but as we didn’t have Christmas dinner with my mother that year, I didn’t actually get to eat any of it.

I haven’t done this again, once was enough :-)

such a brave lady! I think I would have fed it corn and let it die of old age!!
A word of caution when removing hot fat with a baster thingey with a bulb. When you suck up the hot grease, it warms the air left in the bulb and if you are not quick it can shoot hot grease across the room....ask me how I know!!

Thank-you, Linda! I would never have thought of that! I've probably had that shoot effect when basting a turkey. I just thought it was a suction valve failure. And since it just went on the turkey being basted, I really never thought anything of it!

Colleen, that's a great story! I don't think I could have done it. I'm fine with the dispatch of the bird--I'm not so tenderhearted about livestock-- but I don't know that I could have kept it still. My trick with squirmy tots and puppies is just to teach them not to squirm (which works surprisingly well on most of them), but if I did that with the goose, it would become a pet, I think, rather than dinner.

I found a Jamie Oliver recipe for a goose spice rub. The recipe as a whole sounds too fiddly for when and where, but I think I could merge the flavors with Linda's how-to, and maybe a bit of NYT, and come up with a good bird. :)

I would cook it simply as Gordon's recipe

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2428/gordons-christmas-roast-goose-

And make some lovely veggies to do with it. You want to really taste that expensive bird so I wouldnt mess about with it. In England, we'd serve it with roast potatoes; sprouts with chestnuts, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, gravy which is really like a jus, and perhaps another veg.

To make the best bread sauce, in a blender, put a small onion, a few slices of bread and some milk. Whazz it all up, tip into a suacepan, add seasoning and a good knob of butter. Cook this very slowly for about 40 minutes, adding more milk as necessary to end up with a spooning sauce. Not runny.

This is essential as its wonderful in sandwiches with the leftover bird!

I looooove bread sauce! I make mine by studding a peeled onion with about a dozen cloves and simmering it in about a UK pint (US 2 1/2 cups) of milk along with a couple of blades of mace, a couple of bay leaves and a dozen peppercorns, then straining the milk and adding enough fresh white breadcrumbs to thicken it. Just before serving add a good slurp of cream and a large pat of butter (2-3oz) to thin it a bit.

I agree it’s great on sandwiches and even by itself. I always make way more than we need for the meal so there is plenty left over. :-)

I think I would have fed it corn and let it die of old age!!

Me, too, Linda, although in my younger days I did dispatch chickens. But now I totally relate to a friend who lives in an area where urban chickens are permitted. I asked why she doesn't have any, and she said it was because she knew that she'd wind up running a retirement home for aged hens.

My mom used to make a dressing for goose that was like regular stuffing, only with prunes and apples, and cook that separately from the bird. She rack roasted the bird, but she disliked dealing with the fat. I've known people who parboil them to eliminate some fat before roasting, but I've never tasted the end result.

This looks like a great recipe with a fun backstory too. https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/12/jewish-christmas-goose.html?fbclid=IwAR1RWBlQi3nRvYwr4etXTOVKJ32e1xM0I6ZevZFw5rSR8m3LAZuVuuwssZg#comment-anchor-219127

I will be following this recipe with our 11pd goose so I hope I choose wisely.

Good luck with your goose! I'm hoping to test fit my goose pot in the oven it'll be cooking in today.

The pot fits! I also took the goose. Carrying a goose is harder than carrying a turkey twice the weight. The latter is compact and usually comes in a box with handles and is like carrying a crate of books. Carrying the long, unwieldy goose up the stairs was like carrying a sleeping baby. Oy! So as I set out back down the stairs today (of course, it would be spur of the moment with no man muscles to co-opt), I was thinking, "baby". So I stuck the goose under my arm and rested it on my hip. MUCH better. :)