No. 1946

Goose a la Royer

Oie a la Royer

Prepare the same as for the chipolata (No. 1945) and after the stock has been strained, skimmed and reduced to a half-glaze, add to it the juice of one orange, some currant jelly and finely shredded cooked orange peel, pour a part of this sauce over the goose, and garnish around with sour apple tartlets (No. 3327); serve the rest of the sauce separately.

← No. 1945 Goose a la Chipolata Duck & Goose No. 1947 Goose a la Thieblin—Roasted →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a finishing sauce and garnish for a braised goose, not a standalone recipe: everything before the sauce belongs to No. 1945, Goose à la Chipolata. Read it as the last twenty minutes of a much longer dish.

What No. 1945 suppliesA braised goose with the chipolata garnish, which in classic usage means some combination of small sausages, glazed button onions, braised chestnuts and lardons. Without a braised bird and its braising liquid, there is nothing here to build on.
Half-glazeRanhofer's half-glaze is demi-glace: the strained, skimmed braising stock reduced until it coats a spoon and is glossy but still pourable. Reduce too far and the added orange juice will taste scorched and salty.
Skimming matters more than usualGoose throws a great deal of fat. Chill the strained stock if time allows and lift the cap solid; a sauce carrying unskimmed goose fat is liable to separate once the orange juice goes in.
The orange peelShred the zest only, no white pith, and blanch it in boiling water before simmering it soft; 'cooked orange peel' at least implies peel softened by cooking rather than raw zest. Unblanched peel can turn the sauce bitter.
Currant jellyRed currant jelly, not blackcurrant preserve and not dried currants. The recipe gives no quantity; a few spoonfuls is enough, since it is there for gloss and a sweet-tart edge against the goose fat, and more will make the sauce cloying.
Order of additionsRanhofer lists the orange juice, then the jelly, then the peel. Whichever order you use, avoid boiling the sauce hard after the juice goes in, as that flattens the fresh orange note that distinguishes this from a plain brown sauce.
Sour apple tartletsNo. 3327 is Ranhofer's sour apple tartlet; consult it directly rather than relying on a guess at the filling. Whatever you use, cook the apple down until it holds its shape on the platter, since a loose filling will bleed into the sauce.
YieldA goose of 9 to 11 lb will serve six to eight. Allow one tartlet per person and send the remaining sauce out in a warmed boat.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its 3,000-plus numbered entries are cross-referenced exactly as this one is — a working chef's system, where a named dish is often a single distinguishing sauce hung on a standard preparation. The sauce itself is a variation on the old bigarade idea, orange juice and shredded peel in a reduced brown stock, which French cookery is generally said to have attached to duck and goose by the nineteenth century; the currant jelly and tart apple garnish push it toward the sweet-sour treatment that rich waterfowl has attracted across northern Europe generally. The attribution "à la Royer" almost certainly honours a person — a patron, a colleague, a proprietor — but Ranhofer records the name without explanation, and no reliable identification is documented.