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GOOSE (a la Daube)
If a goose is too old to be tender when roasted, it may be advantageously cooked as follows. Truss the goose as for boiling. Either lard it, or place two or three slices of bacon at the bottom of the pan in which it is to be stewed. Put it into a stewpan with an onion, a carrot, a bunch of savoury herbs, one root of parsley, two bay-leaves, a blade of mace, half a dozen peppercorns, a tea-spoonful of salt, two glasses of sherry, half a glass of brandy, and as much stock or water as will just cover the goose. Fix on the lid very tightly, and stew gently for four hours. Dish the bird. Strain the sauce, and pour it on the dish. If the goose is to be served cold, reduce the sauce to a jelly, and pour as much over the goose as the dish will neatly hold. The giblets may be stewed in the same vessel, and used separately in various ways. Sufficient for eight or ten persons. Probable cost of goose, 6s.
A long, gentle braise for a bird past its roasting days. Nothing here is difficult, but several of the measures and the assumptions behind them need translating.
- The hinge: keep it barely trembling"Stew gently" means the liquid should shiver, not bubble. A hard simmer for four hours will shred the breast into strings while the legs are still tough; a bare simmer, or a covered pot in a 300F oven, gives meat that holds its shape and a broth clear enough to set.
- An old goose, and what to use insteadThe recipe exists because a mature bird has too much connective tissue to roast. Supermarket geese are young and would be overcooked here. If you want this dish, look for a stewing goose from a farm, or apply the method to goose legs, or to a mature duck or a boiling fowl.
- Glasses of sherryThe book does not say how big a glass. Victorian tables vary, a wineglassful being given as anything from about 2 fl oz to a quarter-pint; on the smaller reading, two glasses of sherry is roughly half a cup and half a glass of brandy about 2 tablespoons. A dry or medium sherry, not cream.
- Trussed as for boilingThat means the legs pushed into the body and tied close rather than extended, and the wings folded back, so the bird stays compact and fully submerged in the pot.
- Parsley root and blade of maceParsley root is the pale, parsnip-like root of Hamburg parsley, sold in Eastern European and some farmers' markets; a small parsnip is the usual stand-in. A blade of mace is one flake of the lacy outer covering of nutmeg, worth seeking out for its warmer, less sharp aroma.
- LardingLarding needles are rare now. The recipe offers the bacon in the bottom of the pan as an alternative, and it is the easier of the two; a goose carries plenty of its own fat besides.
- Skim before you serveThe book says nothing about the fat, and a goose renders a great deal. Skim the strained liquid, or chill it and lift the cap off. Save it; it is excellent for potatoes.
- Setting it as a jellyThe reduced cooking liquid will set on its own from the collagen in the bird's frame and skin, provided you have skimmed the fat and reduced it enough. Test a spoonful on a cold saucer before pouring it over the goose.
- Yield and timingEight to ten servings, as stated. Test with a skewer at three hours rather than assuming four; the leg should give with no resistance.
A la daube is French kitchen shorthand for meat braised slowly in wine and stock with aromatics and served either hot in its own liquor or cold in the jelly that liquor sets into, the way a Provençal beef daube is still made. Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, compiled in late Victorian London, was a household reference rather than a chef's book, and the entry's opening line explains its purpose plainly: it is a way to rescue a bird that would be a disappointment roasted. Geese in the period were often kept for meat, feathers and down and for the Michaelmas and Christmas trade, and might be well into adulthood before they reached the kitchen, so techniques for tough poultry were a staple of the genre. The quoted price of six shillings marks the goose as a substantial purchase for a middle-class table.