• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Forager Chef

Foraging and Cooking Mushrooms, Wild and Obscure Food

  • Home
  • About
  • Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Species Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Red Cinnabar
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
        • Fairy Rings
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Elderberry
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • The Wild Harvest
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Goose Confit Glazed with Wild Grape

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Wild goose legs for confit

Dinosaur feet.

This past Summer I really became aware of the presence of geese. You see them so often it’s easy for them to blend in and look like just like any other animal doing their thing. They’re a kind of menace though, and have been wreaking havoc on the watercress pond, and just being pests in general.

Annoyed, my girlfriend’s step-dad and I took matters into our hands and played a game called “honk honk, bang bang”. Just because something is illegal/out of season, doesnt mean it’s unethical. I’ve had a number of hunters complain about Canadian geese to me, and how they threaten to outcompete different species of ducks here in the Midwest, but that’s another story.

Wild goose legs for confit

Plucked and ready to go. The legs will get frenched after cooking since it’s easier.

First thing I did with them was cure the legs for confit after plucking-my go to recipe for any wild bird leg. Pluck + salt the legs, then pick a flavor. Maybe I pack it in a pan with herbs, or go another way with onions and warm spices like allspice, nutmeg, and ginger. Either way from there it’s overnight in the fridge, then poaching slowly in lard, or cooking oil if I’m short on animal fat.
Usually I just sear the skin, warm them up and put them on a plate, but sometimes I’ll switch it up, pick the meat for something, or mock up a quick braise, which is kind of what’s going on here.
Wild goose leg confit glazed with wild grape reduction

With crisping the skin, you have to make sure to get the pan pretty hot first, otherwise the skin can stick.

Glazing by continual, slow, reduction of pan sauces

Glazing, or lacquering, is one of the best techniques I’ve learned in the past few years. You take a braise, and reduce the juices down, down, down, spooning the juices over the meat as they concentrate and the natural sugars thicken to form a layer that shines like a jewel.
Each time you spoon more sauce on at the perfect moment, slowing down and monitoring the heat at the end to get as many spoons of sauce, and layers of collagen rich glaze as you can.
Wild goose leg confit glazed with wild grape reduction
In the end it’s a braised, soft piece of meat, and *almost* eats like barbecue, but without the overt sweetness of something like brown sugar or molasses in the mix.
You could use a lot of things to glaze a piece of meat like this, but something with a little natural sugar or something that thickens a bit on it’s own is the easiest. Here I used some of the wild grape juice reduction that I posted about earlier this year, just a spoon or two is enough for a dinner for two-it’s powerful, versatile stuff, and with the prolonged cooking that functions as a sort of ultra-pastuerization, it’s damn near shelf stable in the fridge.

Wild Goose leg glazed with grape reduction (3)-2

Wild goose leg confit glazed with wild grape reduction
Print Recipe
0 from 0 votes

Goose Confit Glazed with Wild Grape  

Tender, slow cooked wild goose legs glazed with tangy wild grape butter sauce
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Wild Goose Legs, Wild grape

Ingredients

  • 2 legs of wild goose confit
  • 1 tablespoon wild grape reduction recipe here
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup optional
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock vegetable stock, or water
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon rendered goose fat preferably from the carcass or cooking oil

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 300. In an 8-10 inch saute pan, heat the lard until lightly smoking. Pat the goose legs dry with a paper towel, the drier they are, the easier they'll be to sear. Put the legs of goose confit in the pan, skin side down, then put the pan in the oven just to heat through, about 10 minutes.
  • Remove the pan from the oven and put in on the burner on medium heat. Carefully use a spatula to release the legs from the pan without damaging the skin, which should release after a second on the heat, revealing golden brown skin. Pour the oil from the pan and discard. Deglaze the pan with the stock, then add the grape juice reduction.
  • Cook on medium heat, spooning the sauce over the goose legs to glaze them. If needed, reduce the heat to low to give you more control. Whisk in the tablespoon of butter to lighten the sauce and tame the sourness. If the sauce is too reduced and threatens to break, add a few tablespoons of cold water, whisk and keep reducing slowly, basting the legs as often as possible.
  • At the end, I like to turn the heat off the pan and just keep spooning, spooning, spooning the sauce over the legs to get as much of a coating on them as possible. When legs are glazed and looking like lacquered, purple jewels, serve immediately.
  • For the vegetable garnish, things that have a little natural sweetness are going to be the best: squash, roasted onions, roasted root vegetables, etc.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Related

Previous Post: « Crock Pot Stock and Bone Broth
Next Post: Lotus Root Confit »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Categories

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Instagram

foragerchef

Tres Leches soaked in candy cap milk was a fun var Tres Leches soaked in candy cap milk was a fun variation I did on the house dessert of a little restaurant I was at for a time. 

Don’t be surprised if you smell like maple syrup a few hours after eating it. Using ground dried golden chanterelles is another variation that’s on my list to try. 

Link in bio to see how to make your own. 

#candycaps #treslechescake #myteethfellout #wildmushrooms #wildfoodlove
ARISE #fungimancer #frostbite #morels #tisthes ARISE 

 #fungimancer 
#frostbite #morels #tistheseason #mushroomhunting #winter #offseasontraining
Big thanks🙏 to all of you who showed your suppo Big thanks🙏 to all of you who showed your support with the first line of spirits @ida_graves_distillery and I collaborated on. 

Brock did a great job wrangling the wild things, and we have plenty of fun ideas in store (think aging nocino in barrels, new flavor combos, etc). If you’re in the Twin Cities and still need some, the amaro is #soldout but @ombibulousmn has nocino, and should have the spruce  liquor (goes down like pine gin) soon. Thank you!

#distillery #foragedcocktails #nocino #craftspirits #drinkatree #mnspirits #smallbatch #godscountry
Let’s talk roadkill. Honestly, roadkill is too s Let’s talk roadkill. Honestly, roadkill is too specific a term for me—I don’t limit myself to vehicular-harvested meat. 

However you feel about the topic, grab some popcorn and head over to the comment section on my blog (link in bio) for the 🔥personal stories from readers have shared from around the world. 

There’s the kid who brought home a nutria after school, a wife getting 4 deer with the same car, a train hitting a herd of elk, a bear named squish, living in a house with weasels, and more. 

#budgetgourmet #gleaning #scavenging #meatismeat #roadkill #freefoods #finderskeepers #wastenotwantnot
Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberr Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberry cultivars (3 types!) on me before the last snowfall and I honestly don’t even know where to start after processing them. I’d already made jams and hot sauce already and I have enough for a year. 😅

Great time to practice the cold-juice which ensures the juice isn’t bitter. 

Anyone else have any ideas? 

You can still find some on the shrubs if the birds didn’t get them up by the north shore. 

#highbushcranberry #winterforaging #birdberries #sweetnectar #foragerproblems #juiceme #embarassmentofriches #wildfoodlove
100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw v 100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw vegan snacks, but when I read about Euell Gibbon’s wild hackberry candy bars I had to try them. The  originals were just crushed hackberries and hickory nuts, but, I’ve read that Euell grew to dislike the crunch of hackberry seeds later in life. 

Here’s the thing though, if you sift the hackberry flour, you get a fun texture, with no worries about cracking a tooth. 

These are equal parts ground hackberries, dried wild blueberries, and hickory nuts, with a splash of maple syrup to bind.

The end product is a shelf stable, nutrient-packed bite filled with protein, carbohydrates, fats and natural sugars infinitely adaptable to your local landscape.

The texture is chewy and nougat-like, and now I’m curious to see how they’d perform baked in recipes that use frangipane or almond paste. 

#euellgibbons #energybars #hackberry #crushin #paleobreakfast #tradionalfood #wildfoodlove #rawfoods
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Footer

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.