How To Bake A Christmas Goose (detailed Analysis And Recipes)

Roasted whole goose is a traditional dish that is prepared for Catholic Christmas.

Roasted whole goose is a traditional dish that is prepared for Catholic Christmas. Each family keeps its own recipes, secrets and secrets, allowing you to achieve perfectly juicy, tasty meat with a golden crust. Serving also plays a significant role; fruits, berries, spruce branches and even cones are used for it.

 

goose selection

The first stage of cooking does not take place in the kitchen. First you need to purchase a carcass that is suitable in all respects. Namely, the goose should be:

Young. The ideal age is 3 months, a bird older than six months is already considered old for baking. Such meat will cook for a very long time. Of course, the selling side can assure that all carcasses are very young and well-fed individuals. Don't let yourself be fooled! A young goose has soft membranes and sternum bones, while an adult bird has hard ones, and the paws are also distinguished by a dark red color. Free of stains, odor and bluish tint. Otherwise, we can say that the product has lost its freshness. It is better to buy a chilled rather than a frozen goose, since in the latter case its shortcomings are not always noticeable. Weighing about 2-4 kg. This is quite enough for the average family. Please note that the larger the mass of the carcass, the longer it will have to bake (1 kg is approximately 1 hour of cooking). Plucked and gutted. Fortunately, this is now done at any certified poultry point of sale. Firstly, the prepared carcass will facilitate and speed up the baking process, and secondly, it will be easier to assess the quality of the meat.

Preparatory stage before baking

A goose cleaned of entrails and feathers still needs to be checked for the presence of their residues, if there are any, then remove them and rinse the meat thoroughly under running water. Sometimes this bird has noticeable coarse bristles. It will be relieved by immersing the carcass for 2-3 minutes in boiling water.

This bird has excess fat on the abdomen, tail and neck, and this, as well as the extreme phalanxes of the wings, should be cut off. The latter need to be removed because they stick out a lot and often burn to black at a time when the goose itself is not yet ready.

Poultry pickling

 

The taste of meat can be adjusted, giving it a more delicate texture and spicy aroma. This happens due to pickling. There are several ways:

Mix salt and dried herbs (dill, celery, oregano, basil, cumin, marjoram, rosemary) in a mortar, rub the goose inside and out with the resulting mixture, wrap with cling film and place in the refrigerator overnight. Put the carcass in a deep bowl or saucepan, cover with water so that all the meat is covered and add 2-3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice (packaged will not work because it contains sugar). Keep in a cold place for about 6 hours. Place the meat in a deep bowl, pour in a bottle of dry white wine, sliced ​​lemon and 1-2 liters of cranberry juice. If the liquid does not cover the goose completely, then you can add water. The meat needs to be kept in this marinade for about 12 hours. Rub the goose with salt, pepper and herbs, and then apply a mixture of mayonnaise and mustard. Leave overnight.

Adviсe:

When roasting a goose in its own juice without filling on a grate, you need to put a pan with water under it, where fat can drain. Stuffing a goose with food when stuffing is not completely recommended. It is required that a third of the space be free, otherwise the meat will not be baked well. Before cooking, the skin on the thighs and sides of the carcass must be pierced with a fork. The belly ripped open for stuffing is sewn up with natural threads or connected with wooden toothpicks. Synthetics and plastics will turn food into poison. After pickling, the bird should be dried with paper towels.

 

You can start a goose in many ways. For this case, apples, pears, quince, buckwheat porridge, prunes, mushrooms, oranges and even sauerkraut are suitable.

For Christmas dinner, the following options are most often used.

Goose with prunes in the sleeve

1 carcass of a goose, 100-120 g of prunes, 100 ml of cognac, 10 ml of lemon juice, 30 ml of vegetable oil.

When choosing this recipe, it is advisable to use an apple cider vinegar marinade with salt and herbs.

Prunes should be soaked for half an hour in cognac and lemon juice. After stuffing them with the prepared carcass.

Lubricate the sleeve from the inside with vegetable oil and pierce in 3-4 places. Place a goose in it, tie it up, then send it to a preheated oven for 1.5-2 hours, depending on the weight of the bird (it takes 1 hour per 1 kg).

Goose with apples and potatoes

 

1 carcass of a goose about 3-4 kg, 6-7 potatoes, 4 apples, 15 g of salt, 10 g of dried herbs.

The ideal marinade option is in white wine with lemon slices. Then dry the goose, rub with salt and seasonings.

Peel the potatoes, cut into large cubes and boil until half cooked in salted water. Mix with apple slices. Stuff the bird, sew up the abdomen, place on a baking sheet and send to the preheated oven. After 45 minutes, remove and pour over the carcass with leaked fat, repeat this procedure every 15-20 minutes until the bird is completely ready.

Goose with oranges

1 carcass of a goose up to 4 kg, 5-7 oranges, 150 g of honey, 15 g of salt, 10 g of paprika, 70 ml of soy sauce.

For this variant of roasting a goose, you will need a special marinade. It is necessary to squeeze the juice from 1 orange, mix with 60 g of melted honey, soy sauce, paprika and salt. Grate the bird and refrigerate overnight. If the marinade remains, then you do not need to get rid of it.

The goose should not be wiped from the liquid. Peel the rest of the oranges, cut them, stuff the bird with them. It is better to wrap the legs and wings with foil so that they do not burn. Such a goose is baked on a wire rack, so do not forget to put a baking sheet with water under it. First, it should be put on the back on the wire rack and placed in a well-heated oven. After an hour, the fire can be slightly reduced, and the bird must be turned over on the breast and poured with marinade, if left. In case of its absence, you can use soy sauce, orange or lemon juice, as well as a mixture of them. Then every 20-30 minutes it will need to be watered with warm water with honey diluted in it. In general, such a goose is baked for about 3 hours.

Happy and delicious holidays!