A roast goose is a sight to behold. Rich, crisp skin covering an all-dark meat bird as succulent as a giant chicken thigh. Much harder to find than a turkey and up to four to five times the cost, cooking a whole goose is a luxury from time when the food at special occasions was actually special. Today I'm going to show you why cooking a whole goose is a tradition worth remembering, and something everyone should try at least once.
Roasting a whole goose for Christmas is an old European tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, and likely a long time before that. Like pigs, geese would be kept to fatten on barley or another grain in the fall, and around Christmas time they'd be fattened and ready to harvest. As the old song goes: "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat".
While the tradition of cooking a goose for Christmas survived in America for a few hundred years, the centerpiece of one of the most important meals of the year was gradually replaced by cheaper, mass-produced turkey after production increased in the 19th Century.
While I like quality turkey, I grew up near turkey farms (and turkey manure) and to me the commodity birds basically answer the question: "What if Wonderbread was meat?".
A goose on the other hand, is pure luxury: rich and refined, but not gamey, unless you try to roast a wild Canadian goose.
Decline of the Christmas Goose
It's easy to see why turkey took the place of goose at the table. Turkeys yield a lot more meat, and it's cheaper. The best whole turkeys in Minnesota (Ferndale) are $85 / per bird or roughly $7 dollars per lb, while one from my hometown of Willmar MN (Jennie-O) runs around $35 or $2.60 / lb.
By comparison, goose has always been a luxury, and a decline in demand has lowered supply pushing the price up even further. The 10 lb Embden geese I cooked for this post from D'artagnan are $260-$300, each. I've seen another brand at Lunds for $160.
Whole geese are nearly impossible to find out of season in any supermarkets, and it seems to be getting harder. During December when frozen birds are available, fewer and fewer grocery stores and butcher shops seem to carry them every year.
How to Roast a Goose
Imagine cooking a small, fatty turkey that's really expensive. First, you should know that besides roasting, geese can also be poached or steamed to render the fat before browning in a hot oven to crisp the skin.
While poaching and steaming methods work, they make it more difficult to harvest the goose fat for cooking afterwards and you'll also be sacrificing the pan drippings that could make a killer goose gravy.
If you really want to get your money's worth, consider breaking a whole goose down into pieces. This allows you to render all excess fat, confit the legs, make soup from the carcass and cook the breasts separately.
Step by Step Instructions
If you've ever roasted a turkey a goose is similar, just smaller and with fat that needs to be removed as it cooks. All said and done, a ten pound goose will cook in two and a half to three hours.
The first step is the same as roasting duck-I trim as much excess fat away with a sharp knife as possible to save for rendering afterwards. Goose fat is legendary for all-purpose cooking (especially potatoes) and unlike duck fat, it isn't sold commercially.
Next the bird is liberally salted inside and out and allowed to rest overnight in the refrigerator uncovered. This removes moisture and helps the skin crisp, as well as seasoning the bird.
When it's time to cook, the skin of the goose is pierced all over to help the fat render just as if you were cooking a duck. Lots of small, sharp tools can be used and I've used everything from a carving fork, sausage pricker and a safety pin.
After the skin's been pierced all over the bird is stuffed, tied, and rubbed lightly with oil.
I used a chestnut stuffing the for the goose in this post, but your favorite recipe is fine. Some recipes only call for putting a few sprigs of herbs or fruit inside the bird. While that can work, using a bread stuffing is better for your first time. Dry bread helps prevent liquid from escaping the carcass which can splatter everywhere as you're removing the fat from the roasting pan.
Next is the question of whether you want the meat pink or cooked through like a turkey. I recommend the latter as it's difficult to get both crispy skin and tender, pink meat. If you want pink meat it's best to remove the breasts and cook them like a duck breast as in the image below.
The roasting itself is similar to a turkey, but done at a higher temperature (390F) for a shorter period of time. I cook whole ducks similarly. Crisp skin is one of the most important parts of a perfect roast goose, and a lower temperature can dry the meat out by the time the skin's perfectly golden.
As the goose cooks, the fat must be removed to prevent it from scorching. Besides developing a burnt flavor, if it gets too hot it will cause the oven to smoke. I like to use a turkey baster for this, tilting the pan and extracting the sweet golden goose nectar into a mason jar. The fat needs to be removed from the pan every 15-20 minutes, with fewer extractions near the end of cooking.
Once the goose is golden brown and the skin is crisp (2.5-3 hours) it's allowed to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving.
Just like any other poultry, the breasts are removed first, leaving the legs attached to stabilize the carcass.
As far as carving (and this goes for turkey too): slicing meat directly from the bird with a long knife is a great way to mess up your hard work. I always remove the breasts whole and slice on a cutting board. This ensures attractive portions and a fair distribution of the precious, crispy skin.
Goose Gravy
As anyone who's roasted a turkey knows, the drippings from the pan make the best gravy. As your roasting pan may have some excess fat in it, first you'll want to drain off the liquid. Next, deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine, then add about 3 cups of water, scraping with a wooden spoon to release the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
After the pan is deglazed I like to transfer the broth to a saucepan to make it easier to control. Mix some cornstarch with water, then whisk it into the goose broth, simmering until it's reduced to your liking. Don't season the gravy with salt until the very end to prevent over-seasoning it.
While you can make a good gravy with kneaded roux too, cornstarch is nice as it won't develop a thick skin as it sits. You can embellish the gravy a number of different ways, and it's the perfect place to add some dried mushrooms if you have some, especially morels.
After dinner you'll want to put the carcass in the crock pot and make goose broth. One goose carcass made enough creamy morel and wild rice soup to last me a week. The recipe's linked in the related posts section.
What to Serve with Goose
You can serve goose with anything that would pair well with duck and other game birds. The mild, delicate meat loves tart and sweet fruit sauces: pears, apples, cranberries, cherries and orange sauce are all good. If you can find some, highbush cranberry sauce is one of my favorites, simmered with a little maple syrup to taste.
Just like other game birds, goose can also work with savory, woodsy ingredients like nuts, wild rice and mushrooms. One of the best meals I've had in a long time was the goose with truffle sauce pictured in this post. Calling that a dish for a special occasion is putting it lightly.
And of course we have to mention starches. Root vegetables, especially turnips are good with game birds, but potatoes have a particular affinity for goose fat. If you decide to try your hand at cooking a goose at home yourself, you have to try goose fat potatoes.
Related Posts
Classic Roast Christmas Goose with Gravy
Equipment
- 1 Large roasting pan I use the large All-Clad
- 1 Turkey baster for extracting the goose fat
- 1 Baking sheet with cooling rack for resting the bird overnight after seasoning
- 1 Sharp slicing knife or 6 inch utility knife for carving the bird
- 2 Potholders or thick kitchen towels for holding the pan while harvesting the fat
Ingredients
- 1 8-10 lb Goose
- 1 tablespoon Kosher salt approximately
- Stuffing See note
- 2 teaspoons Cooking oil
Goose Gravy
- 3 cups Water
- ½ cup Dry red wine
- 2 Tablespoons Cornstarch Mixed with 2 Tablespoons of water
Instructions
Trimming and Dry Brining the Goose
- Trim the goose of any extraneous fat around the cavity entrance and near the neck. Cut the fat into small pieces and reserve it for rendering later.
- Dry brine the goose by seasoning the inside and outside out with salt.
- Place the goose on a baking sheet with a cooling rack and allow to rest overnight, uncovered in the fridge.
Roasting the Goose
- Fill the inside of the goose with stuffing, you'll need about 5 cups of bread to fill an 8-10 lb bird.
- Preheat the oven to 390 F.
- Put the goose in the oven on the middle rack.
- Every 15-20 minutes, open the oven and, using pot holders, tilt the pan so the fat collects in a corner (it's good to have a helper) and remove the fat using the turkey baster.
- The goose should take around 2.5-3 hours to cook. Just like a turkey, it's ready when the leg moves freely and the meat is nearly falling from the bone.
- Remove the goose from the oven and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving while you reheat and prepare side dishes or gravy.
- Using a utility knife, remove the breasts from the bird, slice into ½ inch pieces and arrange on a pre-warmed serving platter.
- Remove the legs from the bird. You can cut the meat off the bone to make portioning easier.
Goose Gravy
- Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water.
- Deglaze the roasting pan with the red wine and reduce by half. Add the water and scrape up the browned bits.
- Transfer the mixture to a small sauce pot and add the cornstarch-water mixture, bring to a simmer and cook until thickened. When the mixture's thickened to your liking, season it with salt to taste (if needed) and serve.
Video
Notes
- You will need at least 5 cups of diced bread for a stuffing to fill a goose.
- Nutrition information is approximate as it refers to the bird before cooking.
Jacqui
We used to get several (plucked and drawn) wild geese per year - mostly greylag, I live in Europe, but more and more (by now ubiquitous) Canada geese - from a friend of my husband's. I roasted one once and it was not the best choice. First and foremost wild geese are almost always too dry because they just don't have that heavy layer of fat even if they have been eating a lot, and then of course there's the uncertain age. But if you have a wild goose they are great dry-brined (plenty of salt and a bit of sugar and white pepper) for a week or so, then rinsed and boiled. You get fabulous broth and fork-tender dark rich meat.
Alan Bergo
Thanks for chiming in Jacqui. That's a great idea. Somehow this one slipped by me, sorry to be pokey.
Sean Carroll
Hi Alan, looks great! Hoping to make this for Christmas complete with a Sauce Périgueux as you have here. Do you have a recipe for that sauce? Any recommendations? I have a small black truffle for the occasion! Thanks!
Alan Bergo
Hi Sean. No, but I will have a recipe for it eventually. If it was me and I was set on using a small truffle for dinner, say 4 people, I would probably serve a very small portion of risotto or pasta with shaved fresh truffles. You could also skip that and just shave some truffles on the goose at the table with some nice gravy. The classic Perigueux recipe uses an obscene amount of truffles-4 oz for two cups. As the sauce is cooked it's also not the most efficient way to use truffles as they get mild once they're heated.
Helena
Hi, is this oven temperature for fan assisted or not? Thank you!
Alan Bergo
No to keep things easy here for the variety of ovens I don’t use a fan.
Helena
Thank you! Would you say you get a better result from not using a fan? And for a 6kg bird, how long do you estimate the cooking time would be?
For context, I’ve tried so many recipes for our Christmas goose over the years (mostly start it hot and then longer at fan 160-170), but it’s always turned out a bit dry and not crispy / browned on the top … and your picture looks just like I’m trying to get it to 🙂
Alan Bergo
Hi Helena. Sorry I was pokey here. Yes for consistency I don't like to use a fan / convection as not everyone has one.
David
I going to try this recipe for our Christmas Goose this year, and noticed that you dont' mention using an instant read thermometer to test for doneness. Can you recommend what the finished temp should be or are the breasts too thin, ie close to bone, to be accurate. I've roasted goose before, and they usually were a little tough, this recipe sounds amazing and I can't wait to try it.
Alan Bergo
HI David. So yes, no thermometer is needed here as the meat is cooked past 150 F. It's a lot easier than cooking a turkey, after 2.5-3 hours, the legs should move freely from the carcass like a rotisserie chicken.
David
Perfect, thank you!
Davie
Perfect, thank you and Merry Christmas!
Alan Bergo
You too.
Christine
I recently roasted a whole duck for the first time (that I remember) and it was so good and so much better than a lot of the poultry that is in my markets. I would definitely give a goose a go if I could get ahold of one. I find the lack of variety of meats available to most of us so lamentable. The readily available is usually so boring!
Alan Bergo
Agreed. Love roast duck too, it's such a nice change of pace. And having the fat leftover is so nice. They're a great substitute here as they're only about $30-40 each.
denton bragg
Hi Alan,
I've been longing to take a wild 'Canadian'~ Canada goose with my hunting boomerangs but I'm afraid I'd run a-fowl of the law, given the only legal way is with shotgun. Further, although most wading birds have flown-the-coop away from the 'fowled' waters flowing into the Tennessee River here because of Helene, some are still foraging for food and I wouldn't wish to partake of that flesh. I'm keeping a scrapbook of your great recipes inside your book! Keep them coming.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Denton. Taking a goose with a boomerang sounds epic. It seems really silly you can only take them with a shotgun to me.
Linda Reinhart
Ah! Another recipe to remind me of those delicious Minnesota treats, morels and wild rice - both of which we gathered ourselves.
But the goose memory is older - from the 1940s. My grandmother in Louisiana would raise a few geese. Near Christmas she would start “stuffing the goose”. This was a rather cruel practice where the unfortunate bird would be nailed to a board through the webs of its feet. A pan of gruel - basically cooked oatmeal - was kept in front of the bird and several times a day someone would go out and put more gruel into its mouth and stroke its throat to make it swallow.
This process would produce a bird with a LOT of fat! As you point out, that fat is carefully collected during cooking and provided the most top-level fat for special baking and cooking throughout the year.
Needless to say, that is a tradition we have NOT kept up!
Alan Bergo
Hi Linda, yeah, gavaging is the name of that process and it's an old one. The good news is that geese naturally gorge themselves in the fall and if you simply leave out lots of food, they'll eat it. There's a number of places producing foie gras from ducks like that now, no stapling feed needed.
Dean Sherwood
Somewhere I have a cookbook with historical recipes that has a goose stuffing that uses bulgur and dried fruit. It was a great success. The only other attempt I made at roasting a whole goose was when a neighbor had a pet goose accidentally brained when the wind blew the roof off a shed. She was crying when she asked me to take it, she couldn't bear the thought of wasting it or cooking it. That bird was inedible. I don't know what it had been eating, or how old it was, but it was nasty. Fortunately, the fat was fine. There is nothing better for roasting potatoes. Wild geese I part out.
Alan Bergo
Hey Dean. Yeah I was busy plucking a wild goose this week, but I don't love the process and usually part them out too.
David Harness
I love roast goose... we raised them when I was a boy but it's been a decades since I've had it.
Wild goose breasts (Snow/Ross/Canada) can be very good when pan seared like a beef steak. I like to trim them well, generously salt at least two hours ahead of time, and let them dry a little on the counter on a cooling rack. Season with freshly ground black pepper. In a cast iron pan, sear on both sides. Reduce heat, and baste with butter -- add some smashed garlic to the pan if you'd like. Pull the breasts from the pan at 125-130 F. Serve with a nice tart berry compote -- Saskatoon if you live in the prairies.
Alan Bergo
Thanks David. I actually have a plucked Canadian goose breast in the smoker as I type this.
AllisonK
I will never again complain about the $80-90 price for frozen geese here in Fargo-Moorhead grocery stores!
We occasionally raised a half dozen geese when I was a kid on the farm--geese are smart and entertaining (much more fun than chickens or turkeys, which my grandma raised). It is imperative to roast a goose simply--not many herbs/spices aside from salt and pepper--so as not to flavor the quart of luxurious "goose grease" that is so useful.
Alan Bergo
Oh yeah I saw them at Cub last year for 80-90 and none of them have any this year. Thankfully I was lucky enough to have Dartagnan do me a favor.
Rebecca
Well I have 6 young geese that I can't afford to feed through the winter along with the 10 older ones so this is timely.
Stephanie Strom
🤤 Would this be good with wild goose?
Alan Bergo
Unfortunately no. Farmed geese are typically a year old, wild geese could be anywhere 10 years old. for example. Wild geese also eat fish which gives them a much different, and stronger flavor.