Roasted Wild Goose Or Duck Recipes

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.

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.

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.