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Goose, Green, Dressing A
Truss a green goose in the same way as a full-grown one. It must not be stuffed, but the inside must be seasoned with pepper and salt, and two or three ounces of fresh butter put in to moisten it. Set the bird down to a clear, brisk fire, and when it is sufficiently cooked, serve with water-cress round it, and send brown gravy and either sorrel, gooseberry, or tomato sauce, to table with it. Time, about three-quarters of an hour to roast. Sufficient for six or eight persons. Probable cost, 5s.
A short, plain method for a young bird, written for a spit in front of an open fire. The translation to an oven is straightforward, but the timing and the bird itself both need comment.
- What a green goose isA goose killed young, at roughly two to four months, dressed weight around 4-6 lb, with pale flesh and far less fat than an autumn bird. Supermarket geese are generally mature birds, often frozen and around 9-12 lb; a young bird usually means a farm or game butcher, and a mature goose will not behave like this recipe at all.
- "Clear, brisk fire" in an ovenThe book gives no temperature; 'brisk' implies a hot fire, and a reasonable modern equivalent is to start around 425F for 20 minutes to set the skin, then drop to 375F for the remainder, with the bird on a rack over a tray to catch the fat.
- The timing is the weak pointThree-quarters of an hour suits a small bird turning on a spit under direct radiant heat. Judge by a thermometer rather than the clock: 165F in the thickest part of the thigh, away from the bone. A 5 lb bird in an oven is more likely to want an hour to an hour and a quarter.
- No stuffing, and whyThe cavity takes only pepper, salt and 2-3 oz butter. The text gives no reason, but two suggest themselves: young goose flesh is lean and wants moistening from within, and an empty cavity lets heat reach the thigh joint faster.
- TrussingThe recipe says only to truss as for a full-grown goose: legs drawn in against the breast and tied, wings pinned back. A thin bird will splay at the joints if it cooks loose.
- The saucesSorrel, gooseberry and tomato are all sharp, and all three do the same job of cutting goose fat. Gooseberry sauce is gooseberries stewed to a pulp with a little sugar and butter; sorrel is the leaf cooked down to a puree. Any of them stands in for the modern default of apple.
- Fat and gravyEven a young goose renders a useful quantity of fat. Pour it off and keep it; make the brown gravy from the tray sediment and stock, not from the fat itself.
- Yield and costSix to eight is optimistic unless the bird is at the top of its weight range; four to six is realistic. The 5s. price belongs to the period of the book and is only of historical interest.
Green geese belonged to a poultry calendar that has largely disappeared. Birds hatched in spring were sold young and lean around Whitsuntide, while the fattened Michaelmas goose of late September was a quite different article, heavier, richer and traditionally served with sage and onion. The instruction here not to stuff is a marker of that distinction: stuffing belonged to the mature bird. The sharp accompaniments point the same way. Gooseberry sauce is commonly associated with green goose in English cookery of the period much as it is with mackerel, and sorrel sauce has a French pedigree, both of them acid foils rather than the sweeter apple that came to dominate. Tomato sauce in the list is the newer arrival.<br><br>The phrase "set the bird down to" a fire is literal: the goose hung or turned before the coals on a spit or bottle-jack, with a dripping pan beneath, and the cook's skill lay in managing the distance from the heat rather than a dial.