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Roast Goose
A green goose neatly trussed and "done to a turn" looks very tempting on the platter; but there is so little meat in proportion to the size of the bird that unless it be skilfully carved only a small number can be served. The breast of a goose is broader and flatter than that of a turkey. It should be carved in a different manner, although many writers give the same directions for carving both.
Place it on the platter with the head at the left. Insert the fork firmly across the ridge of the breast-bone. Begin at the wing and cut down through the meat to the bone, the whole length of the breast. Cut down in the same way in parallel slices, as thin as can be cut, until you come to the ridge of the breast-bone. Slip the knife under the meat at the end of the breast, and remove the slices from the bone. Cut in the same manner on the other side of the breast. Cut through the skin below the breast, insert a spoon and help to the stuffing. If more be required, cut the wing off at the joint. Then tip the body over slightly and cut off the leg. This thigh-joint is tougher, and requires more skill in separating, than the second joint of a turkey. It lies nearer the backbone. But practice and familiarity with its location will enable one to strike it accurately. The wish-bone, shoulder-blade, and collar-bone may be removed according to the directions given for carving roast turkey. Some prefer to remove the wing and leg before slicing the breast.
The page opens with a warning rather than a method, and the warning is still the first thing anyone cooking a goose needs to hear.
- A goose is less generous than it looksThere is so little meat in proportion to the size of the bird that unless it be skilfully carved only a small number can be served. A goose carries a great deal of frame and fat for its weight, and judging it by the size of a turkey is the commonest mistake made with one. Plan the guest list from the breast, not the scales.
- The breast is flat, so the slices run lengthwiseThe breast of a goose is broader and flatter than that of a turkey. It should be carved in a different manner, although many writers give the same directions for both. The page is correcting other books here, and it is right. You cut down to the bone in parallel slices the whole length of the breast, and only then slip the knife underneath and lift them all off together, which is the reverse of how most people carve now and gives thinner, more even slices off a flat bird.
- The legs are the hard partThis thigh-joint is tougher, and requires more skill in separating, than the second joint of a turkey. It lies nearer the backbone. Goose legs really are tough, which is why modern practice is often to take the bird apart before cooking, roast the breast and confit the legs, and never carve it whole at all.
- A green goose is a young birdThe term meant a goose killed young, and it is what the page pictures on the platter. A bird sold now as plain goose is generally older and larger, with more fat and a firmer breast, and it wants longer and slower cooking than the page’s cheerful opening suggests.
- The fat, which the page does not mentionA goose renders an extraordinary amount of it. Prick the skin, pour the fat out of the tin two or three times during cooking, and keep it — it is the best roasting fat there is. The page is a carving instruction and so says nothing about this, but it is the one omission that matters.
- Stuffing from inside the birdThe carver cuts the skin below the breast, puts in a spoon and serves the stuffing out of the cavity. Current food-safety advice is against cooking stuffing inside poultry, since it may not reach a safe temperature while the bird is still good to eat. Cook it in a dish alongside and the carving instruction is otherwise unaffected.
Read the sentence about finding the thigh joint: practice and familiarity with its location will enable one to strike it accurately. The book is confident that its reader will carve enough geese to learn where the bone is by feel, which is a quiet statement about how often this happened and in front of whom. The other thing the page reveals is which bird the reader knew better. The goose is explained throughout by comparison with a turkey — the breast is flatter than a turkey’s, the thigh tougher than a turkey’s, the wish-bone removed as directed for turkey — so the turkey is the standard and the goose the special case, and that ordering has not changed.