The goose is cooked upside-down with vegetables and herbs in a savory broth, and then turned upright during the end of cooking.
My hunter was only able to bring me home a 2 1/2 pound goose to try this recipe on, so that is what I used. That is the nature of hunting and fishing. You can’t be too picky about what you get, just happy he/she didn’t come home empty handed!
This recipe is okay. I am not a big fan of wild goose, but this does make the meat taste good, even though it remains fairly tough. If you are looking for a way to cook it to make it tender, this is not it. A larger bird would have been more rare than the smaller one I cooked, so the breast meat might have been a little more tender, but the back and legs certainly would not be.
I have included this here in case you’ve seen the same recipe elsewhere and were wondering how it might turn out.
Upside-Down Roast Goose Recipe
The goose is cooked upside-down with vegetables and herbs in a savory broth, and then turned upright during the end of cooking.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
* 1 cup carrots, shredded
* 1 cup celery, diced
* 1 cup onion, finely chopped
* 1 medium apple, cored, peeled and chopped
* 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
* 1 cup veal (or low-salt chicken) stock
* 1/2 cup dry white wine
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
* 1 1/2 Tablespoons dried rosemary
* 1 1/2 Tablespoons dried thyme
* 4 bay leaves
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cracked pepper
* 1 whole wild goose, about 7 to 10 pounds
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a large sauce pan (or in a dutch oven) over medium-low heat. Add the carrots, celery, onions, apple, and garlic. Saute for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the stock, wine, parsley, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Lower the heat to medium-low, simmer for 6 to 8 minutes.
Pour the vegetables and liquid into a large roasting pan fitted with a lid unless you used a dutch oven, in which case you can just add the bird now. Turn the bird breast-side down and nestle into the vegetables and liquid. Spoon some of the liquid and vegetables over the goose and add more water (or wine if you like) to submerse the bird half-way. Cover and roast about 1-1/4 hours. Turn the bird over, facing up, and cook another 15 minutes, uncovered or until a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees F when inserted next to the leg bone.
Remove and let the bird sit for about 10 minutes before carving. Spoon some of the juice and vegetables over each portion of sliced meat.
After eating what we wanted for our evening meal, I put the goose back in the pot and continued to simmer it over med-low heat for several more hours. This made it much more tender, though it does dry the meat out. There is enough vegetables and liquid to pour over the meat though to moisten it up.
