Christmas Goose

A 6kg bird will feed It is best to order it from your butcher a good week or two in advance. It will guarantee you a bird, but may also make the matter simpler and quicker. Take the bird out of the fridge the night before. You need the skin to be dry if it is going to crisp properly.

Ignore anything you may have read about piercing the skin. Allow 15 minutes in the oven per g, plus 20 minutes extra. Some cooks like to place the goose on a rack above the roasting tin, but I remain unconvinced. You may require a large sheet of tin foil, if the skin starts browning too quickly.

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As always, recipes and temperatures vary from cook to cook. In my experience, it is all too easy to over-estimate the cooking time of a goose. Of course, you need to know your oven and keep an eye on the skin. If it appears to be browning too soon, drape a layer of foil over the top. You need a turkey baster to remove all the fat that comes from the goose as it roasts. You can ladle the fat out every 45 minutes or so, but it is awkward and potentially dangerous if it involves tipping the roasting tin.

Far easier to invest in a baster and suck the fat up.

The essential trick is leaving the roasted bird in a warm place, covered with foil, for 30 minutes after taking it from the oven. It gives you time to make the gravy; but crucially, it ensures the flesh is juicier and easier to carve. The route I take is to remove the whole breast first, a simple procedure of slitting the skin along the breast bone of the cooked bird, then carefully prising away each of the breasts in one piece, tenderly separating them from the carcass with a carving knife. You then slice each breast across into short thick slices.

It is a method that magically produces far more meat than carving straight from the bird. It is often a sound idea to get it ready the day before.

Ingredients

The overnight sleep gives the gravy time to mature and mellow. Put a peeled and halved onion, a chopped carrot, the goose giblets minus the liver , a handful of chicken wings, 3 cloves of garlic, a rib of celery, 10 peppercorns, a teaspoon of salt and 3 bay leaves into a pot, pour over 1. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

Strain and set aside. Peel and chop 2 large shallots and saute them with a further chopped carrot and a chopped stick of celery in a little butter. Once the vegetables are starting to soften and have turned an appetising golden brown, pour in about 50ml of marsala, madeira or medium sherry, let it sizzle for a minute, then pour in a litre of the hot stock. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.

You will have a glorious gravy, thin, rich and full of flavour. You would have weighed the goose when you started.

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Take this amount in pounds and multiply it by minutes per pound: The answer you get will be your complete cooking time in minutes: During this whole period, baste the goose as often as possible -- once every fifteen minutes, if you can: Please note that the goose's breast will cook more quickly than the rest of the bird, so protecting it with foil to keep it from overcooking and drying out is a good idea. We kept the goose you'll see below "tented" with foil until the last hour half hour of roasting, with excellent results: You may also want to cover the ends of the goose's legs after about the first hour and a half to keep them from charring.

If you have a larger goose that requires more cooking time, keep giving it half-turns every half hour and pouring off fat as necessary. When the goose is done, remove it from the roasting pan and set it aside on the carving board or platter to rest. It needs at least twenty to twenty-five minutes to rest before you start carving it. The goose's body is shaped slightly differently from that of a turkey or chicken, so they don't carve in quite the same way.

Here's how to do it:. Serve hot with your preferred side dishes. Use the goose fat you've poured off to roast potatoes or in other dishes especially French ones: The carcass will make terrific stock. Finally, check out the stuffing recipe below. One of the best stuffings for goose that we know of. The tart apples and cranberries perfectly offset the richness of the goose meat.

Western Europe: Roast Goose for Christmas

Parboil in salted water for 5 minutes: Peel, core and coarsely chop the apples; peel and chop the onion. Grate the zest off the lemon.

Put the butter into a frying pan; when it sizzles, add the bacon slices and fry them until crisp and brown. Remove and drain on a paper towel: Add the onion to the frying pan: Wash the cranberries and chop them coarsely. Toss them in a large bowl with the potato and onion mixture.

Add the chopped bacon, herbs, and other seasonings: Add the apples and mix together thoroughly. Stuff the goose with all the mixture that will fit in comfortably: After your goose is cooked, always remove all the stuffing from the carcass immediately after cooking.

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Refrigerate when it cools. Skip to main content. Roast Goose for Christmas Western Europe: Roast Goose for Christmas. Remove the tray from the oven, skim away and reserve the fat, then pour any juices into the gravy. Warm up the gravy on a medium heat. Once rested, place the goose on a board and remove the skin — pop this into the oven for another 10 minutes to crisp it up nicely keep an eye on it!

Carve away the legs, then shred the meat with two forks, discarding the bones. Carefully slice away the breasts, then slice up and place on a platter with the remaining shredded meat. Halve the pomegranate, then holding it in the palm of your hand cut-side down over the platter, bash the back with a wooden spoon so the seeds come tumbling out.

Snap the crispy skin over the top, then serve with your hot gravy and all the trimmings.

Please enable targetting cookies to show this banner. Please enable functionality cookies to access comments. How To — Roast Goose part 1. Jamie's handy guide to roasting meat. How to make homemade Christmas crackers.