Roasted Wild Goose Or Duck Food

ROAST WILD DUCK

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.

SLOW ROAST DUCK

Steps:

• Set your oven to 325°F. Using a needle or a sharp knife point, prick the skin of the duck all over -- but be sure to not pierce the meat itself, only the skin. This lets the fat render out and will help crisp the skin. Pay special attention to the back, the flanks, and the very front of the breast.
• Rub the cut lemon all over the duck and stick it inside the cavity. Liberally salt the bird; use a little more salt than you think you need. Stuff the duck with the herbs. Let the bird sit out for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature, while the oven heats up.
• When you are ready to roast, put the duck in an iron frying pan or other ovenproof pan and surround it with root vegetables. Set the pan in the oven. Small ducks (wood ducks, wigeon, teal, ruddies, etc.) only need 40 minutes in the oven. If you are roasting mallards or a typical, store-bought Pekin duck, you will want to increase the roasting time to 90 minutes. A goose may take as long as 2 hours. After the allotted time, take the pan out of the oven and set the ducks on a cutting board to rest. Spoon any fat that has accumulated over the vegetables and salt them well. If the veggies are ready to eat, remove them. If there is a lot of excess fat, spoon it off.
• Now increase the heat to 450°F. When the oven hits this temperature, return the birds to the oven and roast them for up to 30 more minutes, or until the skin is crisp. The reason you take the bird out of the oven is because a) the resting time helps redistribute the juices in the bird midstream, and b) you are crisping skin without totally overcooking the duck by only returning it to the oven when it is hot.
• Remove from oven and let the birds rest. Small ducks need 5 minutes resting time, large ducks 10 minutes, geese 15.

WILD DUCK OR GOOSE WITH SAUERKRAUT

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.

ROASTED WILD GOOSE OR DUCK

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.

ROAST GOOSE

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.

WILD GOOSE

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.

GOOSE OR DUCK FINGER STEAKS

Steps:

• Cut goose or duck breast into finger size strips. Set aside.
• Combine batter ingredients until smooth.
• Add finger steak pieces, stirring to coat with batter.
• Marinate in batter 20 minutes to 1 hour.
• Deep fat fry a few pieces at a time so that they won't stick together, until browned and floating.
• Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.
• Serve with seafood cocktail sauce for dipping.

OLD FASHIONED WILD DUCK/GOOSE GUMBO

Steps:

• Cut up the duck or goose and season with salt and pepper.
• Pour cooking oil into large black iron pot or any other heavy cooking pot. Heat oil and add cut up duck or goose.
• Brown all sides of meat, gradually adding small amounts of water to keep it from burning. Keep browning it until you get a good dark crust on the bottom and sides of the pot.
• When it's browned enough, remove the meat and pour off any excess oil left in pot. Return meat to pot and add enough water to cover the meat.
• Cut up the sausage into thick slices and add it to the pot.
• Add all of the chopped vegetables and additional salt and pepper. You can also use optional seasonings, like 'Tony Chachere's' or 'Slap Ya Mama' if you can get your hands on it.
• Simmer until the meat is tender - this is the key. Ducks will tenderize alot quicker than geese will. I have simmered geese as long as 3 or 4 hours - to the point where the vegetables had all cooked to nothing. I happen to like alot of 'floaties' in my gumbo, so, if that happens, I add more and cook until they're also tender. Keep adding water as it cooks down to keep the level up.
• Turn gumbo off for a while so that any excess grease or oil from the sausage will rise to the top, then skim it off.
• Ladle this into a bowl of steamed long grain rice and serve with a side of potato salad. Good on cold, wet winter days. Well worth the effort.