ROAST GOOSE

GOOSE MEAT IS SURPRISINGLY FIRM, ALMOST chewy to the bite, yet it is also moist and not at all tough or stringy. Both the breast and legs are dark, in the manner of duck, but unlike duck, goose has no gamy or tallowy undertones. Actually, the first impression of many people is that goose tastes a lot like roast beef.

Goose, however, does have a problem. Although the meat itself is not fatty, a thick layer of fat lies just below the skin. As a consequence, the skin, which looks so tempting, often turns out to be too soft and greasy to eat. To make a good roast goose, it is imperative to rid the bird of this fat.

Most cookbooks and chefs suggest periodic basting with chicken stock or wine to dissolve the fat and promote a handsome brown color. But this method does not work. A considerable amount of subcutaneous fat always remains, and worse, the basting seriously softens goose skin, which should be crackling crisp.

Among all the goose-cooking methods we had read about, we were most intrigued by the steam-roasting and closed-cover techniques recommended by various authorities. Since the best way to render fat is to simmer it in water, steaming sounded like a promising procedure.

So we set a goose on a rack over an inch of water and steamed it on top of the stove in a covered roaster for about an hour. Then we poured the water out of the pan and put the goose into a 325-degree oven, covered. After one hour we checked on the goose, and seeing that the skin was very flabby and not in the least bit brown, we removed the cover of the pan and turned the heat up to 350 degrees. Alas, an hour later the skin was still soft and only a little browner. Even though the goose tested done at this point, we let it stay in the oven for another 30 minutes, but the skin did not improve.

Tasting the goose, we realized that there was yet another problem; steaming had perhaps made the meat a tad juicier, but it had also made the texture a little rubbery and imparted a boiled, stewish flavor. The goose no longer tasted the way we thought goose should. So we abandoned steaming.

Since liquid basting and steaming had both proved unsuccessful, we thought it was time to try a simple dry roast. Some of the geese that we had bought came with instructions to roast at 500 degrees for 30 minutes and then to turn the oven down to 300 degrees and roast several hours longer. We stuffed the goose, dried and pricked the skin, and popped it into the scorching oven. As we should have guessed, within 15 minutes the goose had begun to drip, and the kitchen had filled with smoke. We quickly turned the oven thermostat down to 300 degrees and let the bird roast until it tested done, about three hours. Then we increased the oven temperature to 400 degrees, transferred the goose to a large jelly-roll pan, and returned it to the oven for about 15 minutes to brown and crisp the skin. The results surprised us. This method, the simplest of all, yielded a beautifully brown, crisp-skinned bird, with moist meat and surprisingly little unmelted fat.

Dry, open roasting looked like the way to proceed, but we wondered if the technique could be further improved. We thought about adapting a classic technique often used with duck. The duck is immersed in boiling water for one minute and then allowed to dry, uncovered, in the refrigerator for 24 hours. The boiling and drying were supposed to tighten the skin, so that during roasting, the fat would be squeezed out. We tried this method with a goose and loved the results. The skin was papery-crisp and defatted to the point where it could be eaten with pleasure—and without guilt.

The breast and leg meat of a goose are not as dissimilar as the breast and leg meat of a chicken, turkey, or duck. Thus, while most birds require special roasting procedures—such as trussing or basting—to keep the breast at a lower temperature than the legs and to prevent it from drying out, goose can be put in the oven and left alone except for turning it over at the halfway mark to ensure even crisping of the skin.

Unlike these other birds, the doneness of goose cannot be judged solely by the internal temperature of the meat. The length of the cooking time is also an important factor. Goose generally reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees in the thigh cavity (the usual indicator of "well done") after less than two hours of roasting. Yet the meat turns out to be tough, especially around the thighs, if the bird is removed from the oven at this point. At least 45 minutes of additional roasting are required to make the meat tender. Since goose has so much fat, there is little chance of the meat drying out. The most reliable indicator of doneness is the feel of the drumsticks. When the skin has puffed and the meat inside feels soft and almost shredded when pressed—like well-done stew meat—the rest of the bird should be just right.