Goose a la Chipolata

Ranhofer writes for a professional brigade with a stockpot always going and a numbered index of component recipes at hand; the cross-references are to preparations elsewhere in The Epicurean. Read this as a braise with a garnish, and it becomes very manageable.

• What "a la Chipolata" means hereNot the small sausage itself, but the classic garnish of the same name: glazed button onions, glazed carrots, braised chestnuts, mushrooms, and often chipolata sausages and salt pork lardons. The garnish is the dish's identity, so build it as carefully as the bird.
• BraziereA braisière is a heavy lidded braising pan, ideally with a recessed lid. Any deep Dutch oven or covered roaster that holds the goose snugly will do; snug matters, because the liquid must come halfway up the bird without your using gallons of it.
• Bards of fat porkThin sheets of fatback used to line the pan. Fatback or unsmoked salt pork from a butcher is the closest thing; sliced pancetta works, though it adds cure and salt. Cut the seasoning elsewhere if you use cured pork.
• The braise, not the roastThree to four hours of bare simmering is what Ranhofer asks for; he gives no weight for the bird. On the stove keep it at a lazy tremble; if you would rather use the oven, a low setting of around 300-325F will hold it there without attention, though Ranhofer gives no oven instruction. Leg meat should give at the bone before you stop.
• Degreasing is the whole jobA goose renders an enormous amount of fat. Strain the braising stock, chill it if you have time so the fat sets in a cap, and lift it off before reducing. Skipping this gives a sauce that breaks and coats the mouth with grease. Save the fat for potatoes.
• "Bits of veal"Veal trimmings or a split veal knuckle, added for gelatin and body as much as for flavor. A pig's trotter or a few chicken wings substitutes acceptably; without something gelatinous the reduced stock will not gloss the sauce.
• Cooked fine herbs and the forcemeatFines herbes here means parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives, softened in butter rather than raw. The stuffing is essentially sausage meat loosened with breadcrumbs and bound with egg; season it assertively, as Ranhofer says, since braising mutes it.
• MadeiraUse a dry-ish Sercial or Verdelho for the braise and keep some back, since Ranhofer adds more Madeira to the brown sauce while it is reducing. Cooking wine labelled Madeira is salted and will wreck a reduction.
• Chestnuts"Braised chestnuts fallen to a glaze" means peeled chestnuts simmered in stock until the liquid has cooked down to a syrup that coats them. Vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts are fine and save an hour of peeling; they are fragile, so turn them by shaking the pan.
• YieldA goose serves six to eight, and rather less generously than its bulk suggests, since the frame is large and the fat layer thick. Ranhofer offers two uses: the whole bird as a releve or roast, or the slices, legs and giblets as an entree.