Roasted Goose for Christmas Dinner

Cottage Rose

Crowing
12 Years
Jun 24, 2008
2,107
80
291
Mid west Michigan
I had a gander I purchased from another breeder
that wouldn't breed so I had him butchered and
we roasted him for Christmas dinner.
I prepared a ham as well in case some of our guests
didn't want to eat goose meat.
Well it was a big hit especially with the men.
Frankly I only took one bite to taste it since I
get a little squeamish about eating critters I've loved and cared for.
I never had goose before and I found it quite mild with no distinct flavor
but some of our guests compared it to veal.
My son-in-law couldn't stop raving about how well he liked it.
Anybody else out there eat goose meat?
Wish I had taken a pic ot it but I was too busy hosting.
 
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I had one (buff american gander, born in late June I believe) and it was delicious. I did take pictures and will post them later (just put up three tons of hay and have no motivation to do much of anything).

I stuffed the bird with apples and oranges with a couple bay leaves and roasted at 325 until it was 165, then turned it up to 350 to finish (when it hit 175-180 in thickest part). Garlic cloves were put under slit skin, and all subcutaneous fat pads I could remove I did and reserved them for veggie roasting at a later date. It was fantastic, and I will be making goose pot pie with the leftovers this week. Yummy!

I processed my own. I felt better in that the bird was never stressed, never handled by a stranger, and never left the farm. I can understand why some people can't do it though- I always feel a bit guilty although I try not to. I give the dogs the raw neck and heart, the chickens got to peck clean the carcass after I pulled all the meat off after dinner.
 
I am a duck and Goose hunter and eat them all the time, we love them and love to make Goose Jerky yummmo.

AL
 
I'm looking forward to trying some in the future. We've always butchered and processed our own meat as well. I just haven't quite figured out the whole plucking thing. Seems I get my water too hot or something and end up tearing the skin. (Which to me is the best part of the bird). Anyway, I have embdens so I plan to hatch some out this spring and then butcher in the fall. Now that I've read this thread, I can hardly wait. Sounds so good....
 
NPR just had a little segment on traditional goose seasoning and they said orange peel, nutmeg and sage were the traditional seasonings for goose.

I was wondering what different flavorings any of you favored that had cooked goose before. I don't even have a goose, but hey, you never know what will happen next around here.
 
I never have eaten a goose and probably never will, but my word we saw one in the grocery store the other day and it was $52!!!!!!!!!!!! $52 dollars??? REally?????? Holy Moses that's a lot of money for a bird to eat and it wasn't much bigger than a chicken.
 
I processed 2 of my geese this fall and they were delicious! We had a problem with plucking the birds, so one was plucked and one was skinned completely to save time. The plucked one we roasted for Thanksgiving and it was good. The skinned other we soaked in an orange juice marinade after removing the meat from the bone, and stir fried it. It was possibly the best stir fry we've ever had. It was more like eating steak than chicken. The marinade made it more tender and leached out the gamey taste. Next time we process geese I am planning to just skin most of the birds. It saves a huge amount of time and the meat was great chunked up into stew meat.

CottageRose I never thought I would be able eat birds I raised, either. If you had told me a year ago my freezer would be full of animals I raised and named, I would have called you crazy. After becoming increasingly aware of how food is processed and handled, however, I now do most of our meat here at home- raise it, feed it, care for it and in the end butcher it. I was a little squeamish about it at first, but I got over it pretty quickly when I tasted the delicious difference between factory raised/processed animals and animals raised at home in better conditions.

We did stop naming our animals, though. It's tough to sit down to a ham dinner and have your 4 y.o. pipe up with, "So... is this Betty or Wendy?"
hmm.png
 
On this same topic, does anyone know if any goose breed is more aloof? Like less like your pet dog? I could never butcher my chinese geese. They have too much personality but if there is some breed that is more like a dumb chicken, I wouldn't have much of a problem butchering.
 
I don't know how to deal with the personable goose either other than very minimum interaction after hatching so they don't bond to you.
I had one late, lone gosling that was raised with some ducklings this year and she took on their skittish traits but i even felt bad when we had some Muscovies butchered this fall. It was a totally different experience for me.
Prior to this we had only raised chickens and rabbits for meat. I guess If i learned to detach myself from the cute fluffy 6-8 wk. old bunnies i could learn to do that with the geese....maybe?
hmm.png


PS we did find the goose meat more fine grained than the duck meat which was a bit stringy.
 
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We tried once but it was so GREASY we were pretty disgusted. I'm sure it would have tasted delicious if I had known how to cook it properly.
Anybody have tips on how to cook fatty birds like geese and ducks? I really want to try again.
 

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