touchtheearthfarm.com Blog

We’ll be putting our goose in to brine tomorrow morning, leaving it in the salt and ice water bath for about 36 hours until I’m ready to cook it Christmas day.

To prep the bird, I’ll rub it down with just a bit of olive oil to help crisp the skin quickly, but goose is a fatty enough bird that it doesn’t need much. I’ll prick the skin in several places with a fork to allow the fat to drain out into the deep roasting pan, which I’ll drain several times during roasting. The goal is to pierce the skin and underlying fat, but not the meat.

What ever you do, save the fat from the cooking process! Cooking a Christmas goose is a wonderful tradition for this alone. I siphon mine off with a bulb baster into a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup where it can safely cool before I fill whatever containers I might have handy and pop it into the freezer. All year long, I’ll be able to pull out the pristine white goose fat, shave off some chunks, and roast vegetables and potatoes to golden brown perfection. Goose fat is one of the most delicious cooking oils you’ll ever taste! Europeans are known to use duck and goose fat instead of butter on slice of toast.

Be sure to drain the fat for two reasons: 1) you don’t want your bird swimming in fat as it cooks, and 2) it’s highly flammable and no one needs a holiday meal to remember from that standpoint!

I’ll likely stuff my goose with fresh herbs, apples, onions, and garlic, since I won’t be doing a dressing this year. I’ll also reserve some of that stuffing to encircle the goose in the roasting pan, which will caramelize down nicely at the end of the roasting process. Adding about 1/4″ of water in the bottom of pan will help keep the fat from igniting as it drips from the bird; just be sure to skim the fat off the water when siphoning it later.

I’ll place my bird into a 425° oven for about 30 minutes or so to sear the skin, after which I’ll drop the temp down to about 325° to continue cooking until done. Folks can use a meat thermometer to test for doneness, though I generally cook until the leg bone begins to loosen and pull away a bit from the body when gently tugged. Be sure to baste and drain the fat several times during cooking.

A smaller goose like ours will take about 2 to 2.5 hours, depending whether it’s stuffed. When I’m about an hour away from being done, I’ll drizzle some of the drained fat over a medley of cubed gold potatoes and sweet potatoes, roasting them under a low broiler.

Once the goose is done, we’ll let it set for 15-20 minutes while making a gravy from the remaining pan drippings.

Links:

An NPR story acclaiming the wonders of goose fat

An illustrated guide to roasting goose