advice on goose!

[lozza_9]

not sure if this is the right thread but here goes!

has anyone eaten Goose?

We are considering having Goose for Xmas Dinner, never had so was wondering what it taste like.

Can anyone help
Thanks
Lorraine

[Alice]

Could be a good choice Lozza. I love it myself. Hard to describe a taste but it is a bird - so if you like chicken, duck, guinea fowl , pheasant - that kind of thing - you will like it. Other considerations are - it is expensive, but then it is a treat for Christmas. It might cost you £40. Don't know what a frozen one costs or what they are like. A goose looks big but will feed about 8 people so don't be looking for lots of leftovers. And they are very fatty. When roasting, put a couple of slices of old bread in the bottom of the roasting tin to soak up the fat and be prepared to clean the oven. Swings and roundabouts with a goose, but I love it. Probably go for it myself.

What is everyone else thinking about for Christmas dinner.

[Nicos]

We have goose sometimes at Xmas too. Got one on order for this Xmas!

They are pretty expensive and don't have a lot of meat on them compared to a turkey, so you need to buy a much heavier one than you think. Also it is very fatty, so you'll need to take off the fat as it's cooking ( keep it in the fridge for roasts for later on in the year- it's v expensive to buy???£5 a jam jar sized pot)
The flavour is really lovely, but I can see why the turkey took over for Xmas dinner.

[nick the grief]

We have goose as well & I can vouch for the taste of the roasties!!

[Sunbeam]

Goose is lovely - if you closed you eyes and didn't know what it was you were eating, you would probably think it was meat (possibly a very rich pork) rather than poultry - it is very rich and goes beautifully with red cabbage! The breast is very shallow and you don't get huge quantities of meat, but lots of lovely goosefat to roast your tatties in! If you do decide to have it you need to cook it on a rack ontop of a roasting tin as it will give off a huge amount of fat...

[shirlthegirl43]

My OH begged me to cook a goose a couple years ago. He thought I was mad to cook a turkey as well but he was well surprised at how little meat came off the goose. Will agree that the fat is great for roasties.

If you are feeding a lot of people, do something else as well or you will all be hungry.

[Earthbabe]

I would echo the comments here about goose. Mr E keeps asking but so far we havent' got round to it. Had it as a girl and we had two roasts on the table that day as there were quite a few. I remember it being delicious and yes the fat for roasties is superb. Don't forget the sage as this has a wonderful flavour and goes extremely well with fattier meats.

[burnie]

Wild goose is better than farm,less fatty I thought,same with Duck,trouble is the shot can make a mess of your teeth(but not as much as it made of the fowl I guess).Lingon berries are the thing to eat with goose I was told.

[nick the grief]

........Lingon berries are the thing to eat with goose I was told.

We have Brussels with ours ... they're bigger

I think a lot of/most wild food is better than farmed Burnie, usually cos of the diet (more varied) and it matures slower. As to the shot, imagine what would happen if you swalloed it after eating stuffing & sprouts....... you could blow the neighbours cat off the fence

[Snadger]

I once got the chance of a wild Canada goose (well you would be pretty wild if you'd just been shot!) that was culled from a local lake. After preparing it and cooking it there wasn't much meat but what there was was lovely.
I am sure I read somewhere that a goose should be boiled first then cooked in the oven?

[Lesley Jay]

Oh Nick!! You are so funny!!

[Palustris]

Lidl and Aldi selling goose quarter the price of Sainsburys. Skim off the fat and stored in the freezer will do roast veg for 6 months after. Want a real different sauce with it, then try adding a tablespoon of Quince Jelly to the gravy (great if like me you cannot eat citrus), it kills the fat beautifully.

[lozza_9]

excellent thank you all

Just tried tesco but they dont start selling till 1 week before xmas :-( Might try Lidl as I want to try it before Xmas day as I dont want her Xmas meal ruined if we dont like it BUT we do both love duck so I am thinking we will be ok.

Lorraine

[Earthbabe]

Lidl also have frozen duck available but if you can get a "wild" one it will be so much better. We usually have duck with just the three of us, from my butcher neighbour along with oodles of his hand made chipolatas. I can smell it now. The flavour of a proper duck is superb and they seem to have less fat and more meat than a "farmed" bird. You just have to remember not to chew or swallow the shot, but you can tell roughly where it is because there will be a "bruise" in that area where the bird has bled.

Worth seeing if you have a butcher nearby with a game licence.

[Alice]

Thanks for the info Palustris. I'll be down to Lidl tomorow to see what's doing.
Also, I like a good dollop of red currant jelly added to the gravy. We don't have any quince.