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Preparing the Goose for the Oven
Singe, and remove all pin feathers. Before drawing the bird give it a thorough scrubbing with a brush, in a warm Fairy soap solution. This is very necessary for it cleans off all dirt that becomes mixed with the oily secretions, and opens and cleanses the pores that the oil may be more readily extracted. Draw and remove everything that can be taken out, then rinse thoroughly and wipe inside and out, with a clean crash towel; sprinkle the inside lightly with salt, pepper, and powdered sage. (The latter may be omitted.) Stuff with the following mixture and truss as turkey.
This is the preparation stage for a roast goose, and most of it still holds. One instruction does not: the soap bath.
- Skip the soapDo not scrub raw poultry with soap or detergent — it is not food-safe and current guidance is against washing raw birds at all, since splashing spreads bacteria across the sink and counter. Wipe the goose dry with paper towels instead; the roasting itself takes care of the surface.
- Why the author wanted itThe reasoning behind the scrub is sound even if the method is not. A goose carries a great deal of subcutaneous fat and the skin is greasy from the preen gland, which is why she wanted the "pores" opened. Pricking the skin all over with a fork or skewer, avoiding the flesh, does the same job of letting fat escape.
- Singeing and pin feathersModern birds arrive largely plucked, but geese are stubborn. Pull remaining quills with tweezers or needle-nose pliers, then pass the bird briefly over a gas flame or a lit alcohol burner to take off the down.
- Drawing the bird"Draw" means remove the viscera. Nearly all geese sold now come drawn; keep the neck, gizzard and heart for stock and the liver for something else.
- Crash towelCrash is a coarse plain-woven linen, the standard kitchen cloth of the period. Paper towels or a lint-free tea towel do the same work.
- Trussing "as turkey"Legs tied together at the ankles, wings folded back under the shoulders or tied against the body. Trussing is worth doing carefully on a goose, whose skin is loose and slack as the fat renders.
- Roasting the thingThe book gives no temperature here. A goose is best started hot, around 425F for the first half hour, then dropped to 325-350F for the remainder, on a rack over a deep pan so it does not sit in its own fat. Pour off the rendered fat once or twice during cooking and keep it.
- DonenessCook to 165F in the thickest part of the thigh, away from bone. Goose leg meat is dark and tolerates a little more, but the breast dries quickly past that point.
- YieldA goose of 10 to 12 lb dresses out smaller than the weight suggests — the frame is heavy and the fat losses are large. Count on six to eight servings, plus a jar or more of rendered fat.
The brand name in the middle of these instructions is not incidental. 52 Sunday Dinners was compiled by Elizabeth O. Hiller and published in 1913 by the N. K. Fairbank Company of Chicago, a manufacturer whose two best-known products were Cottolene, a cottonseed-oil shortening sold as a substitute for lard, and Fairy Soap, the small white oval cake advertised with the line "Have you a little fairy in your home?" Cookbooks issued by soap, flour and shortening firms were among the most widely circulated recipe collections in America between about 1890 and the First World War, given away free or sold for a few cents, and their authors were expected to work the sponsor's goods into the text. Goose was a cold-weather bird in the American kitchen calendar, carried through the Christmas and New Year season and traditionally associated in Britain with Michaelmas and Christmas rather than with summer tables.