Goose, Roast
INGREDIENTS.- Goose, 4 large onions, 10 sage-leaves, 1/4 lb. of bread-crumbs, 1½ oz. of butter, salt and pepper to taste, 1 egg. AVERAGE COST, for large goose, with stuffing, 7s. 6d.
GOOSE, TO CARVE.
This entry is really a shopping list: the goose, and the sage-and-onion stuffing that goes inside it. The method Mrs Beeton assumed her readers knew is missing, so the notes below fill in the parts that matter.
- What the quantities makeThe stuffing figures - 4 onions, 10 sage leaves, 4 oz breadcrumbs, 1½ oz butter, 1 egg - are for one large bird. A goose of 10-12 lb serves 6 to 8 people; there is far less meat on a goose than its weight suggests, since much of it is frame and fat.
- Parboil the onionsRaw onion in a stuffing that sits inside a bird for two hours will still be harsh and crunchy. It was common practice to boil the peeled onions until tender, drain and chop them, then mix with the crumbs, chopped sage, butter, seasoning and egg. The egg is a binder only.
- Sage by leaf, not spoonTen fresh sage leaves is roughly a tablespoon chopped. Dried sage is far more assertive - a teaspoon of dried rubbed sage is closer to the mark, and modern palates generally find the full Victorian dose of sage very strong.
- Oven heatA goose wants a hot start and a moderate finish: about 425F for the first 20-30 minutes to set the skin, then 325-350F for the remainder, roughly 20 minutes per pound.
- The fat is the pointPrick the skin over the breast and thighs, keeping clear of the flesh, and pour off the rendered fat two or three times during roasting. A large goose will give up a pint or more. Strain it and keep it - goose fat is the best roasting medium in the house and will hold for months refrigerated.
- DonenessCook to 165F/74C in the thickest part of the thigh. Goose is a dark-fleshed bird and the leg meat stays pink-tinged even when fully cooked, so a thermometer is more reliable than the colour of the juices.
- Stuffing in the birdIf the stuffing is packed inside, it must reach 165F/74C too, which usually means overcooking the breast. Baking it separately in a dish for the last 40 minutes, moistened with a little of the goose fat, is the practical modern compromise.
- What is not listedBeeton took the accompaniments for granted: apple sauce and a thin gravy made from the giblets and the browned pan residues, with the fat poured off first. The trailing line "GOOSE, TO CARVE" is a cross-reference to a separate entry in the original book, not part of the recipe.
- That 7s. 6d.Seven shillings and sixpence for a large goose with its stuffing was a substantial outlay - the mark of a feast-day bird rather than an everyday roast.
Roast goose with sage and onion is the older English festive bird, well established long before turkey came to displace it from the Christmas table - a changeover usually placed in the nineteenth century, though it was gradual, and goose remained a common Christmas bird well after. It belonged particularly to Michaelmas, 29 September, when geese fattened on the stubble of the harvested fields were at their best and were traditionally eaten to mark quarter-day and the paying of rents; "green geese" were the younger birds eaten earlier in the year. The sage-and-onion stuffing is a working piece of cookery rather than decoration - both are pungent enough to stand up to a very rich, fatty meat, and the same pairing attached itself to roast duck and roast pork for the same reason. Households also kept the bird for its by-products: the rendered fat for roasting and for dripping, the down for bedding, and the giblets for gravy or a pie.