Fruit Stuffed Wild Goose

1 (6-8 lb.) wild goose
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cups of chopped onion
1 cup of chopped tart apple
1 cup of chopped dried apricots
3 cups of soft bread crumbs (made from day-old bread)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
4-6 slices of bacon
Melted bacon fat

Sprinkle goose inside and out with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Melt butter in a large saucepan.

Add onion and cook until tender. Stir in apple, apricots, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Spoon stuffing lightly into cavity. Close opening with skewers and string.

Cover breast with bacon slices and cheesecloth soaked in melted bacon fat. Place goose breast up on rack in roasting pan.

Roast at 325ºF. for 20-25 minutes per pound, or until tender, basting frequently with bacon fat and drippings in pan.

If age of goose is uncertain, pour 1 cup water into pan and cover last hour of cooking. Remove cheesecloth, skewers and string.

Serves 6-8.

Goose a L'orange

1 Goose, ready to cook

1 Onion, minced

1/4 ts Tarragon leaves

2 tb Butter or margarine

1/2 c Orange juice

2 tb Orange peel, shredded

1/8 ts Salt

1/8 ts Mustard, dry

1/4 c Currant jelly

2 tb Wine, port or cranberry

1 Orange, pared and sectioned

1 1/2 ts Cornstarch

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Wash a 6-8 lb. goose and pat dry. Skewer neck skin to back, cross wing tips over back. Place goose breast-side-up on rack in shallow roasting pan. Cook onion and tarragon in butter until onion is tender. Add orange juice and peel, salt, mustard and jelly. Stir constantly over medium heat until jelly melts.

Reduce heat, stir in wine and orange sections. Reserve half of sauce for glaze; baste with remainder during 3 1/2 hour cooking time. If goose gets too brown, place aluminum foil lightly over breast. Bird is done when drumstick meat feels very soft.

Stir reserved sauce slowly into cornstarch, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils 1 minute; serve with goose.

A Goose With Golden Apples

1 oven-ready goose; 9 - 10 pounds

1 onions; chopped (1 to 2)

2 cloves garlic; crushed

1 large lemon; sliced

6 cups dry cider

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch ground cloves; or 2

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 ounce butter; or 2

FOR THE APPLES

8 small Golden Delicious apples

4 ounces ground almonds

1 teaspoon sugar; plus a little extra

1 sachet powdered saffron; plus a little extra

1/2 teaspoon orange flower water; up to 1

1 dessertspoon currants

1 egg yolk

Remove the excess fat from inside the bird. Put the chopped onion, crushed garlic and sliced lemon inside the bird. Boil the cider with the spices, pour over the bird and marinate for at least 4 hours, or overnight if that is simpler. Spoon over the marinade regularly, and ensure that there is plenty inside the bird. If you have refrigerated it or taken it from a cold larder, let it stand to reach room temperature before cooking. Pour off the marinade and keep it to one side, but leave the vegetables inside the bird. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Roast the goose on a rack in a pan for 15 minutes per pound. It has a better and sweeter taste when still a little pink. During cooking, pour off the fat and reserve it, but do not baste the bird.

Brown the giblets in a little of the goose fat, add all of the marinade and cook over a medium heat for about 45 minutes, or until it is rich and starting to reduce. Strain through muslin or a very fine sieve, and keep warm.

Core the apples and score a line right round them through the skin, about one third from the top. Mix the almonds, saffron, orange flower water and currants together with a spoonful or more of the hot goose fat and stuff the apples.

Dribble more goose fat over the apples and bake in an ovenproof dish at the bottom of the oven for 30-45 minutes - they should be only just done when the goose is ready.

Once the goose is ready, take it from the pan and leave to stand, covered lightly, for at least 15 minutes, so that it sets nicely. Pour off the remaining fat from the pan and add any accumulated cooking juices to the giblets - marinade gravy, and reduce this further so that there are a few spoons of sauce per person.

A few minutes before you are ready to serve, carefully remove the top part of the cooked skin of the apples, revealing the white cooked pulp.

Mix the egg yolk with the extra saffron and the extra touch of sugar. Paint this mixture over the exposed apples and replace in the oven for just 5 or so minutes until set.

Whisk the butter onto the sauce over a medium heat.

Arrange the goose with its golden apples on a serving dish, pour the spiced sauce into a hot jug and take to your festive table.

Yield: 8 servings

An Absolutely Perfect Roast Goose

1 10 to 12 lb. goose either -fresh or frozen and thawed

A frozen goose is perfectly adequate. Have thawed 24 to 48 hours before the meal (48 is better.) Prick the goose well all over, especially on the breast and on the upper legs, holding the skewer almost parallel with the bird so as to avoid piercing the flesh. Fill a very large pot 2/3 full of water (pot should be large enough to almost accommodate the bird) and bring to a boil. Using rubber gloves submerge bird (neck side down) for 1 minute (till goose bumps arise.) Repeat the process (this time with the tail side down.) Drain the goose, breast side up on a rack in a large roasting pan and set in the refrigerator, naked, to dry the skin for 24 to 48 hours.

When you are ready to roast the bird, on the big day. Make your favorite stuffing. I made one in "94" that seemed to be well liked. The night before Thanksgiving I cooked 1 1/2 cups (raw) wild rice in about 5 cups of water. Drained and chilled overnight. In the morning I added soaked, cut up dry shitake mushrooms along with their soaking water with an egg beaten into it. A tablespoon of poultry seasoning, a sautéed onion, plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper.

Now you salt and pepper the bird inside and out, liberally. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees while you are stuffing and sewing up the bird. Place it in the oven in a roaster and on a rack on it's breast. For a 12 1/3 lb. goose I needed a full 5 hours but this is quite a large bird. Just close the oven and let it stay, undisturbed for 1 1/2 hours. After this time, take it out of the oven. Use a baster to draw out the fat that has accumulated in the bottom of the pan (schmaltz lovers, send up a cheer) You can strain this fat through a coffee filter, putting the schmaltz in small bottles which keep very well in the freezer for up to a year.) Turn the bird over on its back before you put it back in the oven. put it back in for another hour before you start checking for doneness.

The recipe gave the best advice on checking for doneness, at this point, that I have ever seen. With a piece of terry rag, squeeze the upper drumstick (not thigh) lightly. If it feels kind of squishy, like roast beef, it's done. Every bird is different so you must judge when it is done. When meat is done (be patient, it may take a while), raise the heat to 400 degrees. Remove roaster from the oven and transfer bird (rack and all) to a jelly roll pan. Put it back in the oven for 15 minutes to further crisp and brown the bird. Take it out and let it sit, uncovered for a half an hour.

Regarding the roaster, after you remove the bird to a jelly roll pan and put that in the oven, remove the fat from the roaster and put it over 2 burners adding about 2/3 cup of dry sherry and deglaze the pan with a wooden spoon. combine these drippings with your giblet broth either to make a gravy or to use later for goose carcass, slow cooker broth.

Source of Recipe: Cook's Magazine

Roast Goose with Apple Stuffing

1 (8 to 10 lb.) goose, giblets reserved
2 C. water
1 small onion, sliced
1 1/4 tsp. salt
6 C. soft bread crumbs
3 tart apples, chopped
2 stalks celery (with leaves), chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 C. butter or margarine, melted
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground sage
1/2 tsp. ground thyme
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C. all-purpose flour

Trim excess fat from goose. Heat giblets, water, sliced onion and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until giblets are done, about 1 hour. Strain broth; cover and refrigerate.

Chop giblets; toss with remaining ingredients except 1 teaspoon salt and the flour.

Rub cavity of goose with 1 teaspoon salt. Fold wings across back with tips touching. Fill neck and body cavities of goose lightly with stuffing. Fasten neck skin of goose to back with skewers. Fasten opening with skewers; lace with string. Tie drumsticks to tail. Prick skin all over with fork Place goose, breast side up, on rack in shallow roasting pan.

Roast uncovered at 350 F until done, 3 to 3 1/2 hours, removing excess fat from pan occasionally. Place a tent of aluminum foil loosely over goose during last hour to prevent excessive browning. Goose is done when drumstick meat feels very soft. Place goose on heated platter. Let stand 15 minutes for easier carving.

Pour off all but 1/4 cup drippings from pan. Stir in flour. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat. Add enough water to reserved broth if necessary to measure 2 cups. Stir into flour mixture. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.

Serve goose with apple stuffing and gravy.

Yields 6 to 8 servings.

Wild Goose with Currant Sauce

1 Cooking apple cored and cut - wedges
1 lg Orange unpeeled and cut-wedges
6 Pitted dried prunes chopped
2 2-1/2 pound wild geese dressed
2 Envelopes (1.31-oz) dry onion soup mix
2 c Dry red wine
2 c Water

CURRANT SAUCE
1/4 c Red currant jelly
1/4 c Catsup
1/4 c Port wine
1/4 c Worcestershire sauce
2 tb Butter or margarine

Combine first 3 ingredients, stirring well. Spoon into cavities of geese. Place each goose, breast side up, in an oven cooking bag.

Combine soup mix, wine, and water; pour half of mixture into each bag.

Seal bags; cut 6 small slits in top each bag to allow steam to escape. Place bags in a large shallow pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 3 to 3-1/2 hours. Serve with Currant Sauce.

Yield: 4 servings.

CURRANT SAUCE: Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thoroughly heated. Yield: 1 cup.