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Serves 6
Takes 2¾ hours on day 1, plus overnight chilling; 1½ hours on day 2, plus 30 minutes resting
Geese are big and can be quite tricky to cook alongside everything else on Christmas Day. Our solution is to separate the legs and the breasts, cooking the legs in their own fat a day or more before, then the breasts can be cooked much more quickly and in a smaller dish, on the day. The only slightly fiddly bit is separating the meat into legs and breasts, so if possible, get a butcher to do this for you, and ask them to retain the carcass and bones for gravy.
We love roast goose with our Sage and Onion Stuffing and Apple and Cider Sauce, as well as the gravy on and all the other trimmings.
If cooking a goose that was previously frozen, defrost it in the refrigerator for at least two days, as a whole goose will not defrost overnight.
GET AHEAD Cook the goose legs one to two days before you want to serve and store in their fat in the refrigerator.
The day before you want to serve the goose, preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F), gas mark 3.
1. Either ask your butcher to remove the legs and separate the breasts in advance, or do it yourself with a sharp knife (see photographs on page 80). Look for the joint where the thighs join the body, and cut there. Remove the wings as well.
2. Chop off any large and visible bits of fat from around the neck, the opening of the cavity and underneath the goose and set them aside.
3. Cut away the back of the goose (that is, the backbone and ribs, the parts underneath the bird), leaving you with just the breasts, and set aside the bones that you have removed.
4. If you have a butcher’s knife and some experience, you might be able to slice down the breastbone and separate the 2 breasts, but a standard kitchen knife won’t do it and it’s fine to leave it as one piece. Remove any bones sticking out underneath that will prevent the breasts fitting snugly into a roasting tin. Store the breasts in the refrigerator until about an hour before you want to cook them.
5. Place the fat, wings and the legs into a roasting tin – they should fit quite tightly as you want to cook the meat in the fat as it renders out. Add the juniper berries, allspice berries, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, orange zest, 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt (or ½ teaspoon fine salt) and lots of black pepper, tucking all the aromatics under the meat. Separately, put the bones into another roasting tin so that you can use them for gravy stock.
6. Place both tins into the oven. Cook the bones for an hour or so, then remove from the oven and set aside or, if not using immediately, chill to use in the poultry gravy.
7. Cook the legs for 2¼ hours, basting once with the fat, halfway through. Remove the legs from the oven, cool until you can handle them, transfer to a dish or tub with a lid, including the fat, cool and then store in the refrigerator.
8. On the day you want to serve, take the legs and breasts out of the refrigerator at least an hour before you want to cook them. Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7.
9. Season the breasts generously all over and place on a rack set in a deep roasting tin (to catch the fat). Remove the legs and wings from their fat and place in a separate roasting tin. Spoon over a little of the fat and then season with a little more salt and pepper. Roast the breasts for 50–60 minutes, basting once halfway through, or until the skin is crisp and the breast meat is cooked (like game birds, goose can be eaten pink, but should reach an internal temperature of at least 65°C/149°F). Exactly how long this will take depends on the thickness of the breast and the temperature of the meat before it went in the oven.
10. Add the legs to the oven just after you baste the breasts at the halfway point. Roast them for 25 minutes, or until hot through and crisp on the outside. (You can melt, then strain the remaining leg fat and keep it for cooking roast potatoes.)
11. Rest both meats for 30 minutes, keeping them warm. It is essential that the breast rests, covered in foil, for this amount of time, both for the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, and for all the meat to reach a safe internal temperature.
12. Serve your guests a portion of both the sliced breast meat and crispy leg meat. Let people help themselves to the wings, if they like.
