Sunday, January 25, 2009

goose: cook it like beef

i have been roasting a goose for christmas for the past several years. i always brine it first, for a tender juicy goose. otherwise, if not brined, i find that goose is usually dry and chewy. although usually good, my cooked goose has never been awesome until this year. what did i do different? i cooked it like a roast beef. our geese range on grass, just like the beef we eat. since our geese eat grass, their meat tastes very close to grass-fed beef. it tastes more like beef than poultry to us.

i brined my goose 18 hours in advance in a maple-brown sugar brine. i stuffed it with wild and white rice, currants, apples, celery, carrots, onions, almonds and fresh herbs. i roasted the goose. breast down, at 425 F for about one hour, drained the fat, turned the goose over and turned the heat down. i cooked our goose for another 1 1/2 hours aat 350 F until the internal temp was 140 F, just like i cook my beef. i let the goose rest for 20 minutes, carved it and ate it for christmas dinner. this was the best goose we've ever had! the meat was pink and almost melted in your mouth. the stuffing came out great too, the rice was soft and the vegetables and nuts crunchy.

goose leftovers were fought over. we love leftover goose sammiches with horseradish, just like we love it on roast beef sandwiches.

1 comment:

Chiot's Run said...

looks tasty! I would love to have goose some year. We did have a pastured turkey at Thanksgiving. Much better than Butterball!!!