Wild goose or duck is a delectable delicacy that can turn a regular meal into a special event. Roasted to perfection, these birds offer a rich, gamey flavor that pairs well with a variety of accompaniments. Whether you're a seasoned hunter or a culinary adventurer looking to try something new, preparing a roasted wild goose or duck is an exciting and rewarding experience. In this article, we will guide you through selecting the best bird, preparing it for cooking, and roasting it to juicy perfection. Along the way, we'll share valuable tips and tricks to ensure that your roasted wild goose or duck becomes a culinary masterpiece that will impress your family and friends.
Here are our top 6 tried and tested recipes!
ROAST WILD DUCK
This is a recipe specifically for wild ducks that are not morbidly obese. It will not work well with hugely fat ducks or domestic ducks. For those ducks, use my slow roasted duck recipe. You will want to set the birds out for 30 minutes to an hour to warm up; roasting a cold duck doesn't work well.
Provided by Hank Shaw
Categories Main Course
Time 50m
Number Of Ingredients 5
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 450°F or higher. I often cook ducks at 500°F, and small ducks are best cooked at these high temperatures. (You can get away with 425°F if that's as high as your oven will go.) Let the oven preheat a good 20 to 30 minutes. Let the ducks rest at room temperature while the oven heats up.
- If the duck is reasonably fat, use a needle to pierce the skin where there is a lot of fat under it: The front of the breast, between the breast and legs, at the flanks, and all over the back of the bird. Be careful not to pierce the meat of the breast. Rub lemon over the bird and dust it with a good salt. Stuff the spent lemon or orange wedge inside the duck.
- Place a few celery stalks onto an oven-proof pan (I use a cast-iron frying pan), arranging them so you can rest the ducks on top. This prevents the ducks from sitting in their own juices. Roast in the oven as follows: About 10 to 15 minutes for teal or other small ducks, 13 to 20 minutes for anything up to the size of a gadwall, 18 to 25 minutes for a mallard or canvasback. The key here is an internal temperature of about 140 to 145°F at the deepest part of the breast meat, which is in the front third of the breast. Don't have an instant read thermometer? Get one. Ducks need to be cooked medium-rare to medium. An overcooked duck is a sad thing.
- Take the duck out, move it to a cutting board and rest it. Let small ducks rest about 5 minutes. Large ducks need to rest closer to 10 minutes, and geese up to 15 minutes.
- If you want a simple pan sauce, remove the celery and stir a tablespoon or two of flour into the drippings. Let this cook on the stove (you might be able to do this solely with the residual heat in the hot pan until this roux is the color of coffee-with-cream. Add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, some wine or brandy and the juice of a lemon. If the sauce is too thick, add a little water or stock. Whisk everything to combine and add salt to taste. Turn off the heat, add a tablespoon of minced parsley and a knob of butter. Swirl to combine and serve.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 772 kcal, Protein 22 g, Fat 75 g, SaturatedFat 25 g, Cholesterol 145 mg, Sodium 120 mg, ServingSize 1 serving
ROAST GOOSE
Provided by Food Network
Yield 6 to 8 servings
Number Of Ingredients 14
Steps:
- Place the honey, vinegar, and water in a pot large enough to hold the goose, submerged. Bring the liquid to the boil and add the raw goose to the pot. Return to the boil, reduce the heat and cook the goose at a strong simmer for 20 minutes to render some of the grease as well as begin to tenderize the normally chewy bird. Remove the goose from the liquid and allow to cool at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cool enough to handle.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prick the goose skin all around the carcass. Season the cavity with half of the salt and pepper, add the herbs, onion and garlic. Truss the legs and season the outside of the goose with the remaining salt and pepper and the olive oil.
- Preheat a heavy roasting pan for 10 minutes. Place the goose, breast side down, on a rack in the roasting pan and roast in the oven, skimming the fat and reserving it for another use, for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Turn the goose breast side up and roast, basting it with pan juices and skimming the fat, for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours more, or until the juices run clear when the fleshy part of the thigh is pricked with a fork and a meat thermometer inserted in the fleshy part of the thigh registers 165 degrees.
- Transfer the goose to a platter, remove the trussing string, and keep the goose warm, covered loosely with foil. Skim off all but 1/4 cup of fat from the pan juices, add the flour, and cook the roux over moderately low heat, stirring, until it has browned slightly. Add the stock in a stream, whisking, and simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and strain the gravy into a heated sauceboat.
ROASTED WILD GOOSE OR DUCK
This recipe is not for a grocery store goose or duck. Cooking a wild-caught goose or duck is quite different from a farm-raised store bird. My son-in-law asked me to cook the goose he got during hunting season. It is a great way to reward the hunter with a delightful dinner. My son-in-law said it was the best goose he had ever eaten and he comes from a family that eats mostly wild game from hunting and fishing trips.
Provided by Kitten
Categories Meat and Poultry Recipes Pork
Time 4h10m
Yield 10
Number Of Ingredients 16
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Rinse and pat goose dry. Place cold butter in a large bowl and add cranberries, raisins, orange, onion, apple, sage, tarragon, basil, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Mix well using your hands until you have a large ball of butter and fruit.
- Stuff the ball of butter into the body cavity of the goose. Close cavity and tie drumsticks together with kitchen twine. Sew cavity shut to protect flavor and moisture, if desired.
- Place 2 large layers of foil on a work surface. Make a bed of bacon slices in the center of the foil by placing 4 or 5 slices side by side. Lay goose on top, breast-side up. Cover breast and legs with remaining bacon. Bring foil up and fold, sealing in the bird, leaving small space around the bird for air circulation. Place foil-covered bird into a roasting pan.
- Roast in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 3 to 4 hours. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the largest part of the thigh should read 180 degrees F (82 degrees C).
- Remove from the oven, leave the bird breast-side down, and let rest for 15 minutes. Turn the bird breast-side up and let rest for 10 minutes. Open foil pouch very carefully, as there will be a lot of steam. Remove and discard all stuffing and transfer bird to a serving platter. Slice, carve, and serve, or serve whole and carve at the table.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 871 calories, Carbohydrate 15.2 g, Cholesterol 235.2 mg, Fat 65.7 g, Fiber 2.3 g, Protein 53.5 g, SaturatedFat 26.6 g, Sodium 623.3 mg, Sugar 10 g
WILD GOOSE
This is a recipe that I adopted in the Recipezaar restaurant give-away of Feb 2005. Just want to warn that I have not yet made this recipe and therefore cannot yet vouch for it, although I chose it because it appeared to me that it has potential to be tasty and interesting. I plan on eventually cooking this and, if needed, will post any changes I think are called for.
Provided by echo echo
Categories Goose
Yield 1 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 13
Steps:
- Soak plucked and cleaned goose overnight in well salted water.
- Rinse and dry, then stuff with 2 onions and 2 apples, both quartered.
- Place breast side up in open roaster pan and cover with 2 strips thick bacon.
- Brown in 475 degree oven until bacon is crisp.
- Take all fat from pan and discard.
- Remove bacon.
- Add to the pan 1 onion, quartered, 1 carrot, quartered, 1 cut up stalk of celery, 1 bay leaf, 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 2 cans consomme with 2 cans water, and 1 cup of dry red wine.
- Cover the pan and roast at 375 degrees for 2 to 2-1/2 hours, basting often.
- Goose should be done so that meat will readily pull off carcass.
- Remove goose from roaster and place on warm platter.
- Remove and discard stuffing.
- Strain the gravy and thicken with 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water.
- Correct seasoning if necessary.
- Serve with wild rice.
GRANDMA'S ROASTED DUCK
When I was growing up, my grandma always served roast duck for the holidays, and for other family events throughout the year. I always thought it was better than turkey! -Sue Gronholz, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Provided by Taste of Home
Categories Dinner
Time 1h55m
Yield 4 servings.
Number Of Ingredients 6
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 325°. Pierce duck skin all over with a fork. Mix remaining ingredients; rub over outside of duck. Place duck on rack in a shallow roasting pan; add 1 inch of water., Roast duck, uncovered, until a thermometer inserted in thigh reads 180°, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Remove from oven; let stand 15 minutes before carving. If desired, skim fat and thicken pan drippings for gravy. Serve with duck.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 649 calories, Fat 51g fat (18g saturated fat), Cholesterol 152mg cholesterol, Sodium 550mg sodium, Carbohydrate 10g carbohydrate (9g sugars, Fiber 0 fiber), Protein 34g protein.
WILD DUCK OR GOOSE WITH SAUERKRAUT
Here's an old recipe I found about 20 plus years ago and have made it several times when I was lucky enough to get a few ducks. The sauerkraut and lemon takes away a lot of the wild taste. Note: If you get a goose and can tell it's old, you're own your own here. They have a tendency of being very tough.
Provided by Chuck in Killbuck
Categories Wild Game
Time 1h35m
Yield 2-4 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 8
Steps:
- Rub bird, inside and out, with cut side of lemon, squeeze some juice on occasionally, Combine sauerkraut, celery seed, sugar, pepper.
- Stuff bird loosely with the combination and truss the legs.
- Place breast up on a rack in a shallow pan.
- Pour in boiling water.
- Cover and roast in 350° oven for around 45 minutes.
- Remove cover, drain liguid from pan.
- Roast uncovered for 30 minutes, or until done,basting frequently with the sherry.
- Garnish with with orange slices and parsley after removing from oven.
- This is also good stuffed with a nice wild-rice stuffing.
Tips:
- Choose the Right Goose or Duck: Select a young, tender goose or duck with plump breasts and firm flesh. Ensure the bird is properly cleaned and any excess fat is removed.
- Brining Enhances Flavor: Brining the goose or duck in a salt-sugar solution before roasting helps retain moisture and adds flavor. Experiment with different brining recipes to find your favorite.
- Proper Seasoning is Key: Generously season the goose or duck with salt, pepper, herbs, and spices. Don't be afraid to experiment with different flavor combinations to create a unique taste profile.
- Roast at a High Temperature: Start by roasting the goose or duck at a high temperature to brown the skin and seal in the juices. Then, reduce the temperature and continue roasting until the meat is cooked through.
- Baste Regularly: Basting the goose or duck during roasting keeps the meat moist and flavorful. Use the rendered fat or a mixture of oil and water for basting.
- Check for Doneness: Use a meat thermometer to ensure the goose or duck is cooked to your desired doneness. The internal temperature should reach 165°F (74°C) for poultry.
- Let it Rest: After roasting, let the goose or duck rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, resulting in a more tender and flavorful dish.
Conclusion:
Roasted wild goose or duck is a delicious and impressive dish that can be enjoyed for special occasions or as a delightful change from traditional poultry. With careful preparation, proper seasoning, and attentive roasting, you can create a succulent and flavorful meal that will impress your guests and satisfy your cravings for a unique culinary experience. Remember to experiment with different brining and seasoning recipes to discover your favorite flavor combinations. Whether you prefer a classic roasted goose with traditional accompaniments or a more adventurous duck dish with exotic spices, the possibilities are endless. So, gather your ingredients, fire up the oven, and embark on a culinary journey to create an unforgettable roasted wild goose or duck that will leave a lasting impression.
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