Middle Aged and Living Well

After cooking a heritage turkey from Heritage Food USA the past two Thanksgivings, I got the urge to cook goose for a Christmas dinner. Visions of Dickens-esque Christmas table with the family gathered around the big bird on the table was inspiring. The difficulty was where to find a goose, how to cook a goose, and, having never tasted goose, I had no idea if anyone in the family would even like goose. But, I was up to the challenge. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know the goose chase my daughter and I went on. The chase and started and ended at Whole Foods, which had a 9 pound goose in their walk in cooler. It took a while to convince the clerk we wanted the goose, but he handed it over.  We took it home and then researched how to cook the bird. I decided to keep it simple; just some salt and pepper with some garlic and the skin poked to drain the fat. I also decided to add a German touch by roasting some apple and prunes with some goose fat to serve with the bird.

Three hours before Christmas dinner, the goose was in the oven, and within minutes, the house was filling with a great aroma. The aroma is hard to describe, but causes hunger to build with its enchanting smell. An hour later the apples and prunes went in with some of the goose grease, and soon more wonderful smells filled the house. So far, finding the goose was easy, cooking the goose was easy, and things smelled wonderful, but would the family like it?

Carving the bird was a bit of a challenge, but if the meat was as tasty as it smells, there was clearly not enough for 13 people. Luckily we also cooked some beef tenderloin, along with various vegetables to round out our meal. The verdict? I can see why goose was featured in many movies and decorated many Christmas tables. The goose was as tasty as it smelled. Dark meat all around and chalked full of rich poultry flavor. The apple, prune compote was an excellent accompaniment.  Within minutes, all the meat was gone.

So goose will be on the menu for next Christmas. I need to find a bigger bird, and I will make a couple of changes to the recipe. One, I cooked it to a temperature of 170. I think I will pull it at 165. Second, I don’t think there is a second. It was close to a perfect holiday treat.

The picture is not my goose.  In all the hustle and bustle, we forgot to take a picture, but its a pretty close look-a-like for our goose.