I love the smell of a goose as it roasts, the sweet savour of its meat, the lashings of fat it gives us to play with. The flavour of the meat is magnificent. By that I mean full, deep, rich and earthy.
It has been my Christmas bird of choice for 20 years or more, but it is not without its downside. Even the largest bird is unlikely to feed quite as many as a turkey of similar weight. The shape, long and elegant, means you need a large oven and an equally large roasting tin. The fat that seeps out as it cooks, however delicious and useful, can be a danger. It needs removing from the roasting tin carefully. Another downside is that, as the flesh cools, it firms up, rendering it slightly less useful for leftovers. (For sandwiches slice it very thinly.)
Traditionally, we pack the carcass with a stuffing of onion, breadcrumbs and sage. Fruit-based stuffings, provided they include lemon or orange zest, are worth thinking about – add cubes of quince, pear or sharp apple to softened onions and fresh breadcrumbs perhaps, or dried apricots. There is something about dried apricots and goose that just works.
The sweet, rich flesh responds to a little sourness. I toss lemon shells into the roasting tin. Others stuff an orange up its bottom. The meat of the bird, served cold the following day, will perk up at the sight of a gherkin or a vinegar-spiked dill and cucumber salad. I often serve an orange or grapefruit salad with mine.
Buying the bird
Get the right weight. A 4.5kg goose will feed six. A 6kg bird will feed 8-10. It is best to order it from your butcher a good week or two in advance. It will guarantee you a bird, but may also make the matter simpler and quicker.
Roasting your goose
Take the bird out of the fridge the night before. You need the skin to be dry if it is going to crisp properly. Ignore anything you may have read about piercing the skin. Allow 15 minutes in the oven per 450g, plus 20 minutes extra. Some cooks like to place the goose on a rack above the roasting tin, but I remain unconvinced. You may require a large sheet of tin foil, if the skin starts browning too quickly.
Cooking temperatures and times
As always, recipes and temperatures vary from cook to cook. In my experience, it is all too easy to over-estimate the cooking time of a goose.
For a 4-5kg goose, my own preference is for a high start (220C/gas mark 7), then a long, slow roasting at 180C/gas mark 4. Of course, you need to know your oven and keep an eye on the skin. If it appears to be browning too soon, drape a layer of foil over the top.
Draining the fat
You need a turkey baster to remove all the fat that comes from the goose as it roasts. I don’t need to tell you (though I will) that the fat is copious and horrifically hot. Please be careful. You can ladle the fat out every 45 minutes or so, but it is awkward and potentially dangerous if it involves tipping the roasting tin. Far easier to invest in a baster and suck the fat up.
Resting the bird
The essential trick is leaving the roasted bird in a warm place, covered with foil, for 30 minutes after taking it from the oven. It gives you time to make the gravy; but crucially, it ensures the flesh is juicier and easier to carve.
Carving your goose
The route I take is to remove the whole breast first, a simple procedure of slitting the skin along the breast bone of the cooked bird, then carefully prising away each of the breasts in one piece, tenderly separating them from the carcass with a carving knife. You then slice each breast across into short thick slices. It is a method that magically produces far more meat than carving straight from the bird.
The gravy
It is often a sound idea to get it ready the day before. The overnight sleep gives the gravy time to mature and mellow. Put a peeled and halved onion, a chopped carrot, the goose giblets (minus the liver), a handful of chicken wings, 3 cloves of garlic, a rib of celery, 10 peppercorns, a teaspoon of salt and 3 bay leaves into a pot, pour over 1.5 litres of water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain and set aside.
Peel and chop 2 large shallots and saute them with a further chopped carrot and a chopped stick of celery in a little butter. Once the vegetables are starting to soften and have turned an appetising golden brown, pour in about 50ml of marsala, madeira or medium sherry, let it sizzle for a minute, then pour in a litre of the hot stock. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. You will have a glorious gravy, thin, rich and full of flavour. Pour into a bowl, let it cool, then chill it overnight. Slowly heat it up the next day and serve piping hot.
Roast goose, apple sauce, lemon potato stuffing and marsala gravy
Serves 6-8
goose 4.5-5kg
floury, white fleshed potatoes 1.3kg
banana shallots 400g
olive oil 3 tbsp
lemon 1
rosemary 3 stems
thyme 10 sprigs
For the apple sauce
large cooking apples such as Bramleys 3
lemons 2
cinnamon stick 1
cloves 4
Remove the goose from its wrapping and place in a large, deep roasting tin. Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 7. Peel the potatoes and quarter them, then cook them in boiling, lightly salted water for about 10 minutes, until they have just started to soften.
Peel and halve the shallots, remove the roots, then unfurl the layers. Warm the olive oil in a shallow pan over a moderate heat, add the shallots and let them cook until soft and golden.
Drain the potatoes and return them to the dry saucepan, pressing down on them lightly with a potato masher or fork to slightly crush them. Squeeze in the juice of the lemon, then cover with a lid and let the potatoes infuse with the lemon juice. Reserve the empty lemon shells.
Pull the needles from the rosemary and roughly chop them, then chop the thyme leaves. Add the herbs to the potatoes, fold in the cooked shallots, then season with salt and black pepper. Stuff the crushed potatoes into the goose. A few may fall out into the tin – no matter. Season the skin of the goose with salt, add the lemon shells to the tin and place in the oven for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 180C/gas mark 4 and leave to roast for two hours. Watch the progress carefully, covering the skin with foil if it appears to be browning too quickly. When it is ready, the skin should be a deep walnut brown. (If the goose produces vast amounts of fat, and well it might, remove some carefully with a turkey baster or small ladle.)
While the goose roasts, make the apple sauce. Peel, core and roughly chop the apples. Put them into a heavy-based saucepan. Squeeze the lemons and add the juice to the pan together with the cinnamon stick and the cloves. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and leave to simmer until the apples are soft. Remove and discard the cloves and cinnamon stick, then crush the apple sauce finely with a fork or a potato masher.
Lift the goose from the tin, place it on a warm serving platter and cover with foil. This resting is important. Carefully ladle out most of the fat into a bowl or jar, let it cool, then store in the fridge. Carve as below.
Place the goose on a chopping or carving board with a little foil underneath to catch any juices. Using a long, sharp carving knife, make an incision as close as possible to the breastbone, at the open end of the goose. Slide the knife along the length of the bird, keeping as close to the breastbone as you can. Prise the meat away from the bone and slice downwards, the blade of your knife tight to the ribcage, removing the breast in one large, long piece. Now repeat with the other breast.
Move the carcass on to a serving dish, then cut the breast into short, thick slices, putting them on a warm serving dish.
Cut slices from the legs, removing as much meat as you can, and serve.
Adapted from The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater (4th Estate, £26), the Guardian Bookshop’s November book of the month. To order a copy for £19, go to guardian bookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846