Roast Goose
The goose should not be more than eight months old, and the fatter the more tender and juicy the meat. A "green" goose (four months old) is the choicest. Kill at least twenty-four hours before cooking; cut the neck close to the back, beat the breast-bone flat with a rolling-pin, tie the wings and legs securely, and stuff with the following mixture: three pints bread crumbs, six ounces butter or part butter and part salt pork, two chopped onions, one tea-spoon each of sage, black pepper and salt. Do not stuff very full, and stitch openings firmly together to keep flavor in and fat out. If the goose is not fat, lard it with salt pork, or tie a slice on the breast. Place in a baking-pan with a little water, and baste frequently with salt and water (some add onion and some vinegar), turning often so that the sides and back may all be nicely browned. When nearly done baste with butter and a little flour. Bake two hours, or more if old; when done take from the pan, pour off the fat, and to the brown gravy left add the chopped giblets which have previously been stewed till tender, together with the water they were boiled in; thicken with a little flour and butter rubbed together, bring to a boil, and serve with currant jelly. Apple sauce and onion sauce are proper accompaniments to roast goose. -Mrs. J. H. Shearer.
A straightforward roast, but written for a bird that was killed in the yard rather than bought frozen, and with a cooking time that assumes a much smaller goose than most butchers sell today.
- The hinge: get the fat outA goose carries far more subcutaneous fat than a turkey, and the recipe's frequent turning and basting with salt water is aimed at rendering it. Prick the skin all over the breast and thighs with a skewer before roasting, angling the point so it pierces the fat layer but not the meat, and pour the fat out of the pan every 30-40 minutes or the bird sits and fries.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given because the book assumes a wood range. Start at 425F for 20-30 minutes to set the skin, then drop to 325-350F for the remainder.
- Time and donenessTwo hours suits a 6-8 lb green goose. A commercial goose today runs 10-12 lb and needs roughly 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Go by an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, not by the clock: 165-175F, with the juices running clear.
- "Green" gooseA bird of about four months, as the recipe says. What is sold frozen today is generally a young bird of broadly similar age, so the recipe's premise largely holds; a genuinely old goose is rarely offered for sale.
- Hanging the birdThe 24-hour rest before cooking was usual for freshly killed poultry and was held to improve texture. It was done in a cold larder. A bought goose needs no equivalent beyond thorough thawing in the refrigerator, which for a 12 lb bird takes two to three days.
- Stuffing quantitiesThree pints of crumbs is about 6 cups, from stale bread rather than dry packaged crumbs. Six ounces of butter is 1 1/2 sticks. The instruction not to fill the cavity tightly is worth keeping: stuffing inside a goose absorbs fat and expands, and it must reach 165F itself, which is easier to achieve baked separately in a dish with some of the pan drippings.
- Beating the breast-boneFlattening the keel with a rolling-pin was presumably to make the bird sit flat and compact in the pan. It serves little purpose with a modern trussed bird and risks tearing the skin.
- The gravySkim the poured-off fat aggressively before adding the giblet stock; goose fat separates fast and a fatty gravy is unpleasant beside the meat. Save the rendered fat, strained and refrigerated, for potatoes.
- YieldA goose gives far less meat per pound than it looks. A 10-12 lb bird serves six, perhaps eight with generous sides.
Buckeye Cookery came out of Ohio in the late 1870s, compiled from contributions by named local women, and this recipe reflects a Midwestern table where a goose might be raised on the place rather than bought. The preference for a "green" goose is an older English distinction: green geese were the spring-hatched birds sold young and grass-fed, as against the stubble geese fattened on harvest gleanings and eaten at Michaelmas in late September, a pairing generally traced to English agricultural custom well before it crossed the Atlantic. Sage and onion in the stuffing, apple sauce alongside, and currant jelly on the plate all echo that English tradition, and the insistence on stitching the openings shut "to keep flavor in and fat out" tells you what cooks of the period considered the chief risk of the bird.