If it’s your first time cooking a goose, this is a fairly easy method.
You should allow around 1lb/450g per person as the weight can be deceptive.
The recipe below will serve 8 and cook in 3 and a half hours ( cook for 20 mins a lb/450g).
Ingredients
1 large-ish goose (9-11 lb / 4-5kg). Get your butcher to half it lengthways
6 cm piece of ginger
6 large sticks of cinnamon
6 star anise
2 teaspoons whole cloves
olive oil, 2 oranges, red wine vinegar
Method
Take the goose out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature before you cook it. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.
Peel and finely slice the ginger, then lightly bash it in a pestle and mortar with the cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves and plenty of salt and black pepper. Don’t make it too smooth.
Rub this mix into the skin of the goose halves, then put both halves skin side up in a big deep-sided roasting tray and drizzle over a bit of olive oil.
Roast for 20 mins a lb/450gs, basting every hour. There’s going to be a lot of fat so when you baste remove what you can. Either pour off CAREFULLY as it will be hot, or use one of those basting syringes. Keep this fat as it great for cooking with. Put it in a jar, let it cool and stick it in the fridge. It’s ideal for your roast potatoes.
After the goose has been in for 2 hours, slice the oranges and carefully add to the tray. The goose is cooked when the leg meat falls easily off the bone.
Now you can leave it to rest, covered, for half an hour and serve hot and crispy; shred the leg meat and slice the breast.
Throw a good splash of red wine vinegar into the tray to pick up all the sticky bits, then drizzle this over your meat. Serve with spuds, veg and all the usual trimmings.
You could also let everything cool in the tray, put it in the fridge (for up to 2 days), with the goose still protected in its own fat and reheat when you need it. This might save a bit of stress on the big day !
To reheat, put the whole tin back in a preheated oven at 180°C/gas 4 and crisp up the goose for around half an hour – or until hot through, then slice and shred, and serve as above.
