The Song of the Sled ,in the side bar, fits this story exactly
The perfect day of goose hunting: everyone shoots two boxes of shells, nobody hits anything.
Exactly,and if you DO hit something, you have to clean and pluck it,then bake it and eat it and it tastes just like the mudpies my Sister used to make when she was about three.
Goose should be fed to anyone else but me.
Way further down, blame for our debt is laid on various Liberal PM’s. Can’t be true, they promised us free stuff.
It’s a common sense blog. It will give 70% of Canadians hissy fits. More bad news on tufa accounts. If you actively trade in them and are successful car at their discretion may consider you a business. Apparently they are only tax free if you don’t make to much money or lose it. I really doubt they are finished with small incorporated business either. When I go to my dentist or accountant or lawyer or doctors office there is 2 or 5 or 8 or maybe a dozen people working there but I guess that’s not a real business and they make to much money .
The religion of peace spreads more peace in Pakistan today 65 dead 237 injured ……the bomb was targeting Christians celebrating Easter today as they gathered in Islamabad or Lahore to celebrate a Muslim expressed their well wishes to the huge group of peaceful Christians gathered together by detonating a bomb targeted specifically for the gathering of Christians …..I suspect more to come.
You need to learn how to do it right. Breasting a goose is quick, easy and (relatively) tidy. Turn the goose on its back. Take off enough feathers to find the breast ridge down the center. With a sharp knife, slice through the skin and along one side of this bone and then stick your thumbs in under the skin and peel it back to fully expose both breasts. Filet these out and move on to the next goose. Two minutes max when you get the rhythm of it.
Wash the filets in cold water to remove the residual feathers and any pellets, and chill.
Next is the issue of how to cook goose (or for that matter, most wild game, to compensate for the lack of fat. The lard of the cloven-hooved beast is one answer. Reserved fat from roasting a domestic goose is another. But goose breasts are similar in appearance to and, if you want to keep it simple, can be treated like strip loin steak: a little salt; a little pepper; some oil and/or butter in a medium skillet; and some wine to de glace the pan as au ju in the end. The single most important thing is to NOT OVERCOOK the meat – if it is not medium-rare it will immediately go on to become the over-cooked shoe leather you rightly despise. Watch for the juices to start to come through the uncooked side then turn the meat; two or three minutes/side at most. Serve immediately; slice on the diagonal before the sauce if you want to get fancy. Veggies need to be something that can go on the plate before you cook the goose.
The other potential issue is the age of the goose. The nature of nature is that the vast majority of hunted birds will be young and tasty, and few can tell the difference between a two year-old goose and a twelve year-old bird until you stick your fork in it. But if it is a twelve year old goose be ready with a back up goose breast; or the number for pizza…
Even better is a good goose stew; which can be four pages of instructions, half the vegetable garden and two days of work to prepare, but is excellent if you want something that can rest well in a pot and feed a hungry crowd.
Great ‘blog’. Thanks for the link.
A perfect description … of my average golf game. Spraying golf balls into the deep woods with me chasing into thickets … discovering all manner of wildlife … everything BUT my Titleist 3. Yep, nothing accomplished. No trophy. No bragging rights. Just a nice walk in the park.
Thank you for that information.I have cooked them like a domestic turkey,obviously the wrong way to do it.
News on tfsa account – sorry ,persistent autocorrect.
You are welcome. This is what I give people who “don’t eat wild game” after they have been challenged into tasting the goose stew, cannot believe what they are eating, and want to know how to do it:
Wild Goose Stew
I tend to make stew by feel, so all quantities are rough guides and these can all be varied to taste. What is described below should make about three quarts of stew but I always find that a stew grows as you add things too it. Start with a four quart pot but have a bigger one ready if it grows as you go. Stews tend to improve if they are cooked the day ahead then cool overnight and are then reheated and finished just before serving; if you do cook the day that you are going to serve it, the stew should at least get to cool for a couple of hours before reheating just before the meal.
1. Kill several geese; not greatly fussed about type; what you ate was a mix of Snows, Lesser Canadas; a Great Canada and a Ross Goose. Clean the geese by taking the breast meat only; the rest is feathers and bones. Three to four geese (6 to 8 filets, about three pounds). Rinse, pat dry and reserve.
2. There is almost no fat in the goose meat, so you need to add some. Fry or bake a half pound of bacon until it is just starting to crisp; drain; chop into lardons ( 1/4 inch squares) and reserve. Similarly, boil four Italian or other garlic sausages to remove some of the fat then slice and/or dice into small pieces. Drain, dry and reserve.
3. Cut into pieces six stalks of celery, six medium carrots, four medium parsnips, two tomatoes, two medium potatoes, and a small (six inch) white turnip. Yellow turnip can also be included although it is not everyone’s taste. The parsnips are key, as they will survive being stewed and soak up flavour, and everyone will think they are potato. Reserve.
4. Dice two medium onions (I like to mix yellow onions and red onions, and adding a third onion is an option, you can never have too many) and chop up a whole garlic; sauté the onions and garlic in a little butter and put in the bottom of the stew pot.
5. Take the goose breasts from step 1 and cut into 1 to 1 ½ inch cubes; dredge lightly in flour mixed with pepper. Remember that wild geese are best eaten young and this is the stage where you have to be sensitive to determining what it is you killed: if the meat is tough (i.e. does not slice up cleanly with a sharp knife) you have an old goose and it is best to discard these in favour of more tender birds.
6. In a fry pan, brown the squares of goose meat in batches using Canola oil over medium-high heat. As you finish these (will take a couple of pans full and the fry pan will be a mess), dump the meat into the stew pot on top of the onion. Add the bacon and sausage bits from step 2. Add the vegetables from step 3. Add a cup of water. Add a half-cup of maple syrup. Add a half-cup of HP sauce. Add red wine (or my preference is Port wine; it does not have to be the expensive good stuff, but the fuller body makes a big difference) to just cover the meat and vegetables. Worchester sauce and/or Tabasco to taste. Give the pot a good stir.
7. Put the pot in the oven at 375 degrees for about an hour or to bring it to boil; stir occasionally and taste to test. Once the contents have come to a boil for about 15 minutes reduce heat (if in the oven to about 225 degrees) and simmer until the meat is tender; about two hours. Add liquids to keep the contents just covered and adjust taste as desired. The flour on the meat and the first potato (which will disappear as the stew cooks) will add some starch to the mix, which will thicken as the stew cooks. If you want thicker gravy, sift small quantities of flour into the slowly boiling liquid. You can also cook the stew on the stove, although I find that you risk burning the bottom of the pot very easily on the stove; less so if you bake it in the oven and overall I feel that the stew turns out better. This is the basic stew, which can either be left to cool and/or refrigerated overnight. Like all stews, it needs to rest though, and after all the work that goes into it, you will too.
8. A couple of hours before serving, put the stew back in the oven at 225 degrees or on the stove top on low to bring it back to a temperature just below bubbling (This is a slow process and takes at least/about an hour).
9. When the stew is at the bubble, it is time to add the more tender vegetables that give it colour and add freshness and flavour, but cannot survive the long slow boil that the meat and heartier vegetables need. Just about anything can be added, but as a rule I include:
– Small new potatoes; either whole or cut up but no larger than ¾ inches as they need to cook in the stew; alternatively you can pre-cook potatoes and add them at the last minute, or as a side dish (less starch in the meal and people can look after themselves).
– Turnip. As for potatoes.
– Mushrooms. Quarter and add. At least a pound, more if you like; and the more varieties the better.
– Whole cherry tomatoes; These are essential as for some reason they absorb a lot of taste and are always appreciated. Pearl onions likewise and are also very good.
– At least one green vegetable. Fresh is best; frozen second best; canned should be drained. Cut beans or shelled peas are standard, chopped broccoli works but goes mushy and becomes unattractive very quickly, as does cauliflower; although both are tasty. Frozen peas work well if thrown in frozen at just about the last minute; they then seem very fresh.
10. Add your choice of vegetables to the pot, stir in well and leave on low heat for at least a half-hour. Stir occasionally and test for taste. This is usually where you need a bigger pot because you can add as many veggies as you want, and more is always better. Be prepared to add another dollop of the Port and/or HP to liven these flavours up. A shot of hot sauce at this point can also be good, if it is to your taste. The stew can then be removed from heat and will both stay warm and not over-cook the vegetables for at least an hour, so this is a good dish for buffets where timings cannot be pinned down, or parties where people graze over longer periods.
11. It is easy to make too much, but it freezes well. When reheated it is best to add some additional fresh vegetables to refresh both the appearance and flavours. This recipe would work with any lean meat: stew beef or bison; bear, moose or duck. Too strong for deer or elk though, which do better with a stroganoff approach.
The Song of the Sled ,in the side bar, fits this story exactly
The perfect day of goose hunting: everyone shoots two boxes of shells, nobody hits anything.
Exactly,and if you DO hit something, you have to clean and pluck it,then bake it and eat it and it tastes just like the mudpies my Sister used to make when she was about three.
Goose should be fed to anyone else but me.
Way further down, blame for our debt is laid on various Liberal PM’s. Can’t be true, they promised us free stuff.
It’s a common sense blog. It will give 70% of Canadians hissy fits. More bad news on tufa accounts. If you actively trade in them and are successful car at their discretion may consider you a business. Apparently they are only tax free if you don’t make to much money or lose it. I really doubt they are finished with small incorporated business either. When I go to my dentist or accountant or lawyer or doctors office there is 2 or 5 or 8 or maybe a dozen people working there but I guess that’s not a real business and they make to much money .
The religion of peace spreads more peace in Pakistan today 65 dead 237 injured ……the bomb was targeting Christians celebrating Easter today as they gathered in Islamabad or Lahore to celebrate a Muslim expressed their well wishes to the huge group of peaceful Christians gathered together by detonating a bomb targeted specifically for the gathering of Christians …..I suspect more to come.
You need to learn how to do it right. Breasting a goose is quick, easy and (relatively) tidy. Turn the goose on its back. Take off enough feathers to find the breast ridge down the center. With a sharp knife, slice through the skin and along one side of this bone and then stick your thumbs in under the skin and peel it back to fully expose both breasts. Filet these out and move on to the next goose. Two minutes max when you get the rhythm of it.
Wash the filets in cold water to remove the residual feathers and any pellets, and chill.
Next is the issue of how to cook goose (or for that matter, most wild game, to compensate for the lack of fat. The lard of the cloven-hooved beast is one answer. Reserved fat from roasting a domestic goose is another. But goose breasts are similar in appearance to and, if you want to keep it simple, can be treated like strip loin steak: a little salt; a little pepper; some oil and/or butter in a medium skillet; and some wine to de glace the pan as au ju in the end. The single most important thing is to NOT OVERCOOK the meat – if it is not medium-rare it will immediately go on to become the over-cooked shoe leather you rightly despise. Watch for the juices to start to come through the uncooked side then turn the meat; two or three minutes/side at most. Serve immediately; slice on the diagonal before the sauce if you want to get fancy. Veggies need to be something that can go on the plate before you cook the goose.
The other potential issue is the age of the goose. The nature of nature is that the vast majority of hunted birds will be young and tasty, and few can tell the difference between a two year-old goose and a twelve year-old bird until you stick your fork in it. But if it is a twelve year old goose be ready with a back up goose breast; or the number for pizza…
Even better is a good goose stew; which can be four pages of instructions, half the vegetable garden and two days of work to prepare, but is excellent if you want something that can rest well in a pot and feed a hungry crowd.
Great ‘blog’. Thanks for the link.
A perfect description … of my average golf game. Spraying golf balls into the deep woods with me chasing into thickets … discovering all manner of wildlife … everything BUT my Titleist 3. Yep, nothing accomplished. No trophy. No bragging rights. Just a nice walk in the park.
Thank you for that information.I have cooked them like a domestic turkey,obviously the wrong way to do it.
News on tfsa account – sorry ,persistent autocorrect.
You are welcome. This is what I give people who “don’t eat wild game” after they have been challenged into tasting the goose stew, cannot believe what they are eating, and want to know how to do it:
Wild Goose Stew
I tend to make stew by feel, so all quantities are rough guides and these can all be varied to taste. What is described below should make about three quarts of stew but I always find that a stew grows as you add things too it. Start with a four quart pot but have a bigger one ready if it grows as you go. Stews tend to improve if they are cooked the day ahead then cool overnight and are then reheated and finished just before serving; if you do cook the day that you are going to serve it, the stew should at least get to cool for a couple of hours before reheating just before the meal.
1. Kill several geese; not greatly fussed about type; what you ate was a mix of Snows, Lesser Canadas; a Great Canada and a Ross Goose. Clean the geese by taking the breast meat only; the rest is feathers and bones. Three to four geese (6 to 8 filets, about three pounds). Rinse, pat dry and reserve.
2. There is almost no fat in the goose meat, so you need to add some. Fry or bake a half pound of bacon until it is just starting to crisp; drain; chop into lardons ( 1/4 inch squares) and reserve. Similarly, boil four Italian or other garlic sausages to remove some of the fat then slice and/or dice into small pieces. Drain, dry and reserve.
3. Cut into pieces six stalks of celery, six medium carrots, four medium parsnips, two tomatoes, two medium potatoes, and a small (six inch) white turnip. Yellow turnip can also be included although it is not everyone’s taste. The parsnips are key, as they will survive being stewed and soak up flavour, and everyone will think they are potato. Reserve.
4. Dice two medium onions (I like to mix yellow onions and red onions, and adding a third onion is an option, you can never have too many) and chop up a whole garlic; sauté the onions and garlic in a little butter and put in the bottom of the stew pot.
5. Take the goose breasts from step 1 and cut into 1 to 1 ½ inch cubes; dredge lightly in flour mixed with pepper. Remember that wild geese are best eaten young and this is the stage where you have to be sensitive to determining what it is you killed: if the meat is tough (i.e. does not slice up cleanly with a sharp knife) you have an old goose and it is best to discard these in favour of more tender birds.
6. In a fry pan, brown the squares of goose meat in batches using Canola oil over medium-high heat. As you finish these (will take a couple of pans full and the fry pan will be a mess), dump the meat into the stew pot on top of the onion. Add the bacon and sausage bits from step 2. Add the vegetables from step 3. Add a cup of water. Add a half-cup of maple syrup. Add a half-cup of HP sauce. Add red wine (or my preference is Port wine; it does not have to be the expensive good stuff, but the fuller body makes a big difference) to just cover the meat and vegetables. Worchester sauce and/or Tabasco to taste. Give the pot a good stir.
7. Put the pot in the oven at 375 degrees for about an hour or to bring it to boil; stir occasionally and taste to test. Once the contents have come to a boil for about 15 minutes reduce heat (if in the oven to about 225 degrees) and simmer until the meat is tender; about two hours. Add liquids to keep the contents just covered and adjust taste as desired. The flour on the meat and the first potato (which will disappear as the stew cooks) will add some starch to the mix, which will thicken as the stew cooks. If you want thicker gravy, sift small quantities of flour into the slowly boiling liquid. You can also cook the stew on the stove, although I find that you risk burning the bottom of the pot very easily on the stove; less so if you bake it in the oven and overall I feel that the stew turns out better. This is the basic stew, which can either be left to cool and/or refrigerated overnight. Like all stews, it needs to rest though, and after all the work that goes into it, you will too.
8. A couple of hours before serving, put the stew back in the oven at 225 degrees or on the stove top on low to bring it back to a temperature just below bubbling (This is a slow process and takes at least/about an hour).
9. When the stew is at the bubble, it is time to add the more tender vegetables that give it colour and add freshness and flavour, but cannot survive the long slow boil that the meat and heartier vegetables need. Just about anything can be added, but as a rule I include:
– Small new potatoes; either whole or cut up but no larger than ¾ inches as they need to cook in the stew; alternatively you can pre-cook potatoes and add them at the last minute, or as a side dish (less starch in the meal and people can look after themselves).
– Turnip. As for potatoes.
– Mushrooms. Quarter and add. At least a pound, more if you like; and the more varieties the better.
– Whole cherry tomatoes; These are essential as for some reason they absorb a lot of taste and are always appreciated. Pearl onions likewise and are also very good.
– At least one green vegetable. Fresh is best; frozen second best; canned should be drained. Cut beans or shelled peas are standard, chopped broccoli works but goes mushy and becomes unattractive very quickly, as does cauliflower; although both are tasty. Frozen peas work well if thrown in frozen at just about the last minute; they then seem very fresh.
10. Add your choice of vegetables to the pot, stir in well and leave on low heat for at least a half-hour. Stir occasionally and test for taste. This is usually where you need a bigger pot because you can add as many veggies as you want, and more is always better. Be prepared to add another dollop of the Port and/or HP to liven these flavours up. A shot of hot sauce at this point can also be good, if it is to your taste. The stew can then be removed from heat and will both stay warm and not over-cook the vegetables for at least an hour, so this is a good dish for buffets where timings cannot be pinned down, or parties where people graze over longer periods.
11. It is easy to make too much, but it freezes well. When reheated it is best to add some additional fresh vegetables to refresh both the appearance and flavours. This recipe would work with any lean meat: stew beef or bison; bear, moose or duck. Too strong for deer or elk though, which do better with a stroganoff approach.