Roast Goose with Oranges and Madeira

Made this for a Boxing Day dinner with friends. It was my first time making goose so I was a bit nervous about it. I did not have a pot big enough to poach the bird, so I placed it in the roasting pan, put it in my sink and poured a considerable amount of boiling water over it on both sides. I kept to the timelines for roasting but towards the end relied on my thermapen to determine the temperature of the goose. Did not add the honey to the sauces, based on what I read here. The ratio of stock to wine is interesting here, I do think if I remade this dish I'd level that out, or even have more stock than wine as the ratio. It doesn't take much wine/madeira to flavor a sauce. One of the things I didn't realize when shopping for this dish is the recipe actually calls for more than 750ml of madeira. (Unless I am misreading the recipe) - So I ran out, and subbed a sherry for the remaining. The shallots are elegant and delicious. There are many glazed shallot recipes out there, and I think any of them would work with this dish. In fact, they may be variations on this one, since this recipe is from 21 yrs ago. The goose fat roasted potatoes which I made to accompany this were AMAZING. I will repeat this recipe this coming week with a more savory meat dish (perhaps roasted pheasant with traditional savory herbs). Last but not least, I used really good oranges in this dish. Cara Caras that are at the peak of perfection. So I did not experience any 'bitterness' from using the whole orange. Bought enough of them to make an orange chiffon cake for dessert, a nice light ending to a rich meal.

• Star and Cross

• Austin TX

• 12/28/2021

I made this recipe for Christmas this year, and have cooked goose on previous years, so this wasn't my first experience with goose. I thought the shallots and the sauce were delicious, but the cooking instructions for the goose were not correct. My goose was cooked well before the final 1 hour and 1 quarter! I couldn't possibly put it in a 450 degree oven at the end because it would have been totally over cooked! As it was, it was delicious but because I didn't do the final time in a hot oven, the skin didn't brown and crisp up. Because I liked the sauce and shallots, I'd do them again, but I would cook the goose differently

• peggydobro2

• Princeton, NJ

• 12/28/2017

Used onions since I didn't have shallots, and marsala since I didn't have madeira. Didn't use corn starch. Crowd loved the sauce. Roasted baby new potatoes in for the last 45 minutes dunked in goose fat, salt and pepper. Excellent! Word of caution. My goose (12 lbs.) was perfectly done a half hour before the recipe predicted. It would be a crime to overcook a young goose. So check the temp after 45 minutes of the second roasting.

• swirt

• Florida

• 12/27/2017

I have not made this yet so no rating. But there is one defect in the recipe: no where does it tell you to save the precious rendered goose fat! Liquid gold and the best medium for roasting potatoes. Once you roast potatoes in goose fat you will be forever spoiled when you have to use something else. Save that goose fat; freeze if necessary!

• pvmkmyer

• Altadena, CA

• 12/8/2017

My first experience roasting a goose and it turned out surprisingly well. Very helpful instructions for preparing it in advance, and I also drained the fat from the pan every 15 minutes or so while roasting. I think the 450-degree roasting for 10 minutes at the end dried out the breast meat a little and was unnecessary to brown the bird at that point. As other reviewers have said, the delicious sauce does not need any honey; it's sweet enough already. I used a mix of madeira and port for the sauce since I ran out of madiera.

• Anonymous

• Chestertown, Maryland

• 12/31/2016

kfrain, as the recipe states: The sauce you make from the brown bits is then whisked into the sauce you have already made from the neck.

• Aracan

• Vienna, Austria

• 12/5/2013

WOW DOUBLE THE SHALLOTS!! They are a bunch of work-make the night before. Was a bit confused as end up with a few "sauces" -the one you make from the neck and then the one you make from the brown bit sin the pan? Just kept the neck one as am extra gravy on the table

• kfrain

• Chicago, IL

• 11/23/2013

Loved this goose, though we didn't trust the cooking instructions. 3 hours at 162°C for a 12 lb goose seemed far too little. Even at 180°C I'd leave the bird in the oven at least 5 hours. But since we heated up the old wood-burning oven anyway, this didn't matter. The sauce is to die for.

• Aracan

• 1/2/2013

I made this for Christmas Eve dinner & everyone went nuts! It was delicious. Our family loves gravy. So, I doubled the sauce. It was perfect!

• Nancy8111

• Chicago, IL

• 1/5/2012

I would give 4 stars for the roasting instructions. The bird came out amazing. My guests loved it - many people wanted the recipe. Taking off one fork for extra sweet gravy and shallots. I read other reviews saying that it was too sweet so I didn't add honey and put some soy sauce and balsamic vinegar and made balsamic reduction sauce instead. It turned out great but I now can't remember what I put in it to adjust the taste. I would definitely make the goose again the same way, it came out with crispy skin and moist meat. Very delicious.

• Anonymous

• Palo Alto, CA

• 12/28/2011

I thought I would try something other than turkey this year (especially since there would only be 3 of us eating),looked around and found this recipe with plenty of positive comments - foolproof. I followed the directions except adjusted the time down a bit because the bird was 10.5 lbs instead of 12.5 lbs. At the end of it all it was mostly inedible - the skin was not only not crispy it seemed like I had developed a whole new class of man- made rubber. There was a small amount of tasty meat but most of it was just too tough to be enjoyable. Very frustrating for the time and the cost - wish I knew where this one went south.

• davidcooks

• Oakville, Ontario

• 12/26/2011

I left the skin on the orange for boiling the sauce and really noticed the bitterness in the final reduction. I think I'll peel the orange and maybe zest in some peel next time.

• ghettofabu

• Newark, NJ

• 1/22/2011

I'm giving this three stars because the family loved it, but I thought it was just okay. To me, the gravy was too sweet, and I think corn starch is a difficult thickener to work with. The flavor of the oranges didn't really infuse the meat the way that I was hoping. That said, the shallots are absolutely incredible. They are easy, compliment the meat beautifully, and would be delicious with other types of roasted meat as well.

• MissHolidayGolightly

• 12/28/2010

Made this for Christmas dinner. I cooked two geese for 10 people and had very little leftover (two extra legs).The sauce was incredible and ciykd be made the day ahead. I didn't make the shallots but did use the goose fat for potatoes roasted in goose fat (recipe elsewhere on this site). Also excellent. This recipe was a lot of work because I followed Julia Child's recipe for preparing the goose by removing the wishbone, etc. before scalding the birds. I had 2 ten pounders and they were done a bit sooner than the time allotted here. I probably won't do this again soon (The geese were over $100.) but the results were excellent.

• BettyStoutenberg

• 12/27/2010

This was my first Goose and it was Fabulous! I didn't have Maderia so I used Ruby Port. Then my wife brought home some Maderia an I made the sauce again. The Maderia sauce was good, but, the Ruby Port was soooo good that if certain religious factions ever learned about it there would be a commandment against it. I'm talking 5 star restraunt good!

• tmfun

• San Jose, Ca.

• 4/3/2010