No. 1952

Roast Gosling or Mongrel Goose

Oison ou Oie Metisse Rotis

A gosling roasted on the spit makes an excellent dish. It can also be cooked in a slow oven laid in a narrow earthenware (Fig. 377) or iron pan with plenty of fat; generally both these birds are stuffed before being roasted. A mongrel goose may be filled with partly broiled chestnuts lightly fried in butter or fat pork; it can also be stuffed with small apples after removing the core with a tube five-eighths of an inch in diameter, or both chestnuts and apples can be replaced by a fresh pork hash into which fine herbs and bread crumbs have been mixed, or even by small sausages roasted partially in fat pork or grease. If the goose be large it will take two to three hours to have it tender; when a gosling is cooked on the spit it must first be trussed, then wrapped in buttered paper and roasted for one hour, being careful to baste frequently and to remove the paper after it has been in three-quarters of an hour to let it acquire a fine brown color, and it is then served simply with good reduced gravy (No. 404). A kind of thick pancake can be served at the same time made with bread-crumbs soaked, pressed, then pounded in a bowl and diluted with whole eggs and milk, seasoning with salt, pepper, pulverized thyme and marjoram and chopped blanched onions. Lay this preparation on a well-greased tin sheet and cook in the oven basting it bountifully with goose grease, after cutting it into inch and a half squares.

← No. 1951 Gosling a la Soyer Duck & Goose No. 1953 Gosling Sauted with Tomatoes, Robert Sauce →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a spit, a coal range and a cook who knows what a browned goose looks like. The method translates cleanly to an oven, provided you deal with the fat and stop trusting the clock over the thermometer.

What a "gosling" and a "mongrel goose" areA gosling is a young goose, perhaps 5-7 lb dressed, which is why one hour on the spit is enough. Oie métisse — Ranhofer's "mongrel goose" — is simply a crossbred bird; a standard 9-11 lb goose stands in for it and suits the two-to-three-hour figure the recipe gives for a large bird.
Oven temperatureThe "slow oven" here is 300-325F. Start higher, around 400F for the first 20-30 minutes to set and colour the skin, then drop to 325F for the remainder.
Doneness, not durationTwo to three hours is a reasonable estimate for a large bird, but goose varies enormously in fat and frame. Take the thigh to 170-175F, which renders the connective tissue; the breast will read lower and that is fine for goose.
The fat is the whole problemA goose sheds a great deal of grease. Prick the skin all over, roast on a rack above the pan rather than lying in it as written, and ladle the fat off two or three times so it does not smoke or boil over.
Buttered paperThe paper wrapping shields the skin while the interior cooks, and removing it for the last quarter of the time lets the surface brown. Parchment does the same job; foil traps steam and gives a paler, softer skin.
StuffingsChestnuts must be peeled and their inner skins removed before the brief fry in butter or pork fat. For the apple version, a 5/8-inch tube is an apple corer or a wide piping tip. If you use the fresh pork hash or the sausages, cook the stuffing separately in a dish rather than inside the bird, or you will overshoot the meat waiting for the pork to reach 165F.
The gravyNo. 404 is the book's cross-reference for the reduced gravy. Deglaze the roasting pan with stock or wine, reduce hard, and skim the fat carefully — goose drippings are mostly fat by volume.
The "thick pancake"This is a baked bread-crumb panade: soaked crumbs squeezed dry, worked smooth, loosened with whole eggs and milk, seasoned with thyme, marjoram and blanched onion, spread on a greased sheet, cut into 1½-inch squares and basted with goose fat. Spread it about ½ inch thick and bake at 350F for 25-35 minutes until set and crisp at the edges.
YieldA gosling serves 4; a large goose serves 6-8, less than its weight suggests because of the fat and the heavy frame.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summary of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the book at its most workmanlike: no fixed formula, just a list of the ways a goose may be stuffed and the two heat sources a professional kitchen still had, spit and oven. The distinction between oison and oie métisse mattered then in a way it does not now — a young bird was tender enough for an hour's roasting, a larger one needed two to three. Chestnuts with goose is a long-standing French pairing, apples a northern European one, and Ranhofer offers them interchangeably along with a pork forcemeat. The bread-crumb squares basted with goose grease belong to the same thrift: the bird produces a great deal of fat, and a classical kitchen had uses for the surplus.