How to cook my goose!

looksee

I've bought a frozen goose from Lidl as husband has asked for goose several Christmases but I've not seen them for sale. I've never cooked one and I'm not sure I fancy it, sounds a bit greasy, but I'll try anything (well nearly anything) once. Anyway the recipe on the goose says put it in an enclosed casserole (big casserole dish!) and cook for about 3 hours, whereas my recipe book says cook it on a rack over a roasting dish, for about the same length of time. The lidl recipe sounds like stewing it in fat to me, but would the other method result in dry meat? Anyone with experience of cooking geese have any suggestions please?

Blub2k4

I've never cooked frozen goose, I always order an organic one and pick it up for Xmas.
Basically the trick to not having nasty cloying grease is to remove the glands in the tail end, I remove the whole parsons nose and bits around it too.
If you cut into the fatty parts there you will notice these lumps about an inch long that are glands that produce the grease that the goose uses to preen its feathers with and keep them waterproof, this is the nasty stuff, make sure you cut those glands out. If you get rid of them then you'll have an oily but not vilely greasey bird. Cooking for 3 hours sounds extreme but then it is a frozen bird, you can eat it pretty medium so you don't have to overdo it. If you follow the tip with the parsons nose then I'd do the three hour recipe as the packaging says, it'll be heavier bird than the free range ones which only need about 45 minutes to an hour when they're not stuffed.

Hope that helps, and if you go goose for Xmas dinner, you won't go back to turkey.

If I were you I'd do a dry run before Xmas at least once to know what you're letting yourself in for.

looksee

Thanks for the advice Blub2k4 that sounds like good advice. I'd like to do a trial run but I don't think I could assemble enough people to experiment on between now and the holiday! The bird has to be thawed before cooking so I'll keep an eye on it, not to overcook. Where do you get your organic goose?We never have turkey, horrible stuff, usually lamb, or I used to get very large chickens years ago but gave it up when I was let down on Christmas eve two years in succession. Thanks again.:)

Alun

Last year, Lidl also had goose breasts .. imagine a duck breast with a boob job A bit easier to cook than a whole goose, especially if there's only the two of you. IIRC they were from Hungary or Romania or somewhere in Eastern Europe anyway.

Blub2k4

There are two stands in Temple Bar market that normally do goose, I think I may have missed my chance already as they take orders early enough but I haven't been there in about two months now.
The organic ones are expensive, you don't get a huge amount off of them but they can cost 45 euro for a medium bird and a bird for four people would cost near enough 70, or more. It's a Xmas only thing really for us, although I must look into it at other times too cos it's tasty stuff.

Another tip I've seen Shabadu give here before to get rid of grease is to make a cone of scrunched up foil which you then stand the bird with the cone up it's back end so that it's lifted off the tray its in and the fat can run off.
If you do it my method the bird will look like it's lost a lot of its back end and there will be a lot of skin missing but it's worth it I find.

neever

I've never cooked goose myself, but my uncle always cooks it for New Year's Eve and its lovely. If you follow the advice about cutting the fat glands out (:() that sounds as if it should help a lot. I'm not sure if my uncle does that, but he always has the goose on a rack inside the roasting tray. That way the fat drips down and drains off the goose. You only use as much as you need to baste it. Thats the same principal as the foil, but a bit easier maybe?

Any fat left over is used to roast spuds - YUM! My 5 year old cousin will now only eat spuds roast in goose fat, what have we started?!

souter

Hi,
I've also got a lidl goose for Xmas, a question for blub2k4 or anyone else - if I cut out the fat glands as suggested, can these be rendered down and used another time?
Yes, I'm Scottish (aka Cavan for those more familiar with Irish stereotypes).

John

Blub2k4

I would remove and dispose of the glands only.
You don't want to render what's in the glands it's lanolin or summat very similar.
If you trimmed out the little cigar shaped tubes then you could render the rest, I tend not to bother as enough fat renders from what is left anyway.

Warlady

Click here for information on cooking your goose.

I found your wonderful website yesterday while googling for how much time per pound to cook my goose. I registered here so I could post the above link for you all and unfortunately for me, my spam folder snatched the registration link email so I didn't find it until today. I used the above link yesterday when cooking my goose and if I don't say so myself it turned out wonderful. I plan to order my next bird from Whetstone Valley (at the above link) which also sells and ships to your door, frozen geese at a reasonable price. I am planning on cooking it again for New Years day dinner. The goose my husband purchased for Christmas dinner was only 4 pounds. They sell much larger ones.

Nice to meet you all. I'm from America and I know most of y'all don't care for us much but we sure do like Brits...at least I do.