How I Cooked My Goose

Goose:

1 12 lb. goose
1 green apple
1 onion
1 rib celery, leaves and all
kosher salt

Broth:

Goose neck and giblets, excluding the liver
Goose wing tips
celery
onion
carrot
garlic
kosher salt
crushed black peppercorns
sage
thyme

Adjust oven rack and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the giblets
and rinse out bird with cool water. Drain and dry with an old bath towel. Cut off any long, hanging neck skin and save it for making broth. Skewer or sew the flap shut. Cut or pull out all chunks of whitish fat from the bird's cavity, and save for rendering. I had easily 3 cups worth of fat chunks this time.

Since the goose will still put out an incredible amount of fat (nearly 2 quarts for my bird), I believe that the traditional bread stuffing is best left to the turkeys and chickens of the fowl world. Core the apple, but don't peel it; cut it into wedges. Peel the onions and cut into wedges. Cut the celery into several smaller pieces. Cut the garlic clove into several pieces. Rub kosher salt all over the belly cavity of your bird. Stuff it with the vegetables and apple. Skewer, sew, or otherwise secure the opening closed. My goose had a band of skin meant to hold its legs together, but it got all stretched out, so I skewered the opening shut.

Now take your poultry shears and snip off the long, bony part of the wings (the part that looks sort of like a beckoning skeletal finger). Save these for the broth. Grab your meat fork and begin stabbing your bird all over, especially in the legs, thighs, and breast area. I also did the back, as bird backs always seem soggy and undercooked to me. Set the goose breast-side up on a rack inside a covered roaster. Roasting the goose with the cover on prevents the fat from smoking and sputtering.

Put the giblets (except the liver), the wing tips, any excess skin, along with some celery, onion, carrot and garlic into a pot. I used a meat cleaver to cut the neck and wing tips in half. Sprinkle some sage, thyme and kosher salt over it all. Add some crushed black peppercorns and any other sort of herb you fancy. Cover with water and set to simmering. It should take a couple of hours to make a nice rich broth.

Put the liver in a bowl of salted water and let soak for an hour or more.

Dice the chunks of fat you have removed from the goose and put them in a saute pan on very low heat. The fat will slowly liquify, until at last, you are left with some browned hard bits in a lake of fat. Strain the fat into the container you are saving the rest of the liquid fat in, and use your food grinder or processor to grind up the hard bits, which are known as cracklings. Set these aside for later.

Roast your goose at 400 degrees for approximately 60 minutes. Take the roaster out of the oven and turn it down to 325 degrees. Pour or siphon off all of the accumulated fat, but save it for roasting vegetables, making gravy, and freezing for frying potatoes later. I had more than a cup of fat at 60 minutes.

Put the bird back in the oven, still covered, and continue roasting. Every 30-60 minutes, pull it out and pour or siphon off the accumulated fat. At the end of the second hour, I poured more than 3 cups of fat off. This second hour seems to be the big fat-shed time. Your total roasting time for a 12 lb. bird will probably be around 4 hours, but don't rely on that. When your goose is cooked, it should have a somewhat dessicated look to it, with long white leg bones sticking out where the meat and fat has shrunk away. You don't want it tough, but you don't want to be left with a lot of solid blubber, either.Pour off the remaining fat and re-cover the roaster.

Let the bird rest on the counter while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Next: Side Dishes