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Recipes

Roast goose

Charles Dickens raved about it for a reason!

Serves8-10
Preparation30 Mins
Cooking Time150 Mins

Roast goose isn't as popular as turkey for the Christmas feast - supermarkets sell just a few thousand geese per one million turkeys - but it's really worth considering if you fancy a change. It is truly delicious!

The flesh is rich and juicy, the skin is the crispiest gold, and the goose fat is like liquid nectar for the ultimate roast potatoes. Plus, goose meat is surprisingly lean, with 'heart healthy' monounsaturated fats.

Ask the butcher to prepare it for you: They need just to remove the legs and excess carcass, to chop up the wings and neck into 2cm pieces and to remove the wishbone (this makes the goose easier to carve). If you were to roast the bird whole, then the breast would be over-cooked, and the legs would be tough. So the preparation is key.

Ingredients Required

Ingredients:

1 (4.5- 5kg)
Goose, free range/organic, excess fat trimmed, legs removed, excess carcass removed and chopped
1
Bay leaf, chopped
2 sprigs
Thyme, chopped
1 clove
Garlic, sliced
3 Pinch
Coarse sea salt
2 Pinch
Black pepper
80g
Butter, unsalted
A pinch
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
600g
Goose wings and neck, cut into 2cm pieces
2 tbsp
Goose fat
100g
Onion, cut in to 3cm pieces
60g
Carrot, peeled, cut in to 3cm pieces
20g
Celery, cut in to 3cm pieces
300ml
Water, hot from the tap
3 sprigs
Thyme
200ml
Port
100ml
Madeira (optional)

Cooking Method

Chef tips

You may be a little concerned about the cooking time (or lack of it). Believe me, it has been tried, tested and tried again. Just make sure you allow your goose to come to room temperature for 3 hours before going into the oven.

A non-scented oil with a high burning point would normally be used for roasting potatoes, but the flavour and very high burning point of the natural goose fat lend itself well to this purpose. If you were to use your best extra virgin olive oil, it would begin to de-nature and turn carcinogenic at 191°C.

When you caramelise the bones, do not colour them too much, or the resulting jus will taste bitter and astringent. And remember, there is 2.5 hours of cooking ahead! The bones have two purposes: they serve as a support to the goose crown allowing the heat to circulate around to give a more even cooking. Often, the roast sitting directly on the bottom of the pan will dry out and burn. The caramelised bones will also provide a wonderful roasting pan jus.

The only way to remove all the fat would be to freeze the strained juices. This would cause the fat and jus to separate, with the fat being able to be removed from the top once it had set firm. However, a small amount of fat should be left in the sauce as it will carry a huge amount of flavour from the roasting process.

Voila!

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