From Blind to Table

After numerous hunting trips this season, Cooper finally brought something home! He, his dad and our brother-in-law, Seth, got seven geese during a guided hunt in Harford County on Monday:

(UPDATE: Cooper wanted me to clarify that the guide shot one of the geese - the limit is two per person and they weren't doing anything illegal)

Side note: Cooper looks oddly petite here.

Cooper and the guide broke the geese down in the field and Cooper just brought home the breasts. I'd never cooked wild geese before, so I was a little nervous, but that is what the internet is for, right? Actually, there wasn't nearly as much specific guidance as I expected. I found Hank Shaw's blog most helpful (Cooper really likes his book Hunt, Gather, Cook).

Anyway, step one involved soaking the breasts in cold water for a few hours, to draw out the blood. Before this, the breasts were a deep red color. Actually, out of the water they were pretty dark, too, but the soaking did pull a lot of the blood from the meat:

Mmmm...raw goose.

Shaw recommends pairing goose with citrus flavors, or with fall fruits, like apples or pears. I went the pear route:

Crispy.

Since the pears were very firm, I sliced them and tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper and a little sugar. A lot of the goose recipes suggest wrapping the breasts in bacon. I had already decided not to do that, but I liked the idea of bacon, so I threw a few slices on top of the pears, then added some liquid in the form of port. In the oven at 400 degrees, these took about an hour to soften - they probably could've stayed in even longer.

Mmmm...raw bacon.

Since this was my very first time cooking goose, I only cooked two of the breasts. If I screwed up, I didn't want to take all the meat with me. I started out with a quick marinade of red wine, Worcestershire, rosemary, garlic, Seasonello salt (we love that stuff) and pepper. After about an hour of marinating, I pulled the breasts and gave them a quick, but deep sear in olive oil over high-ish heat:

This made a mess. Olive oil splatters everywhere.

Once the meat was brown all over - and it did get brown fairly quickly (3 minutes for the first side, about 2 for the other side), I put it in a pan and added it to the oven, where it roasted for about 40 minutes until it was done (though our meat thermometer didn't say it was done - but that's another story, the sad tale of our inability to find a reliable meat thermometer):

Does that look like 135 degrees to you? No. Not to me, either. Thanks, thermometer.

While the meat was in the oven, I made a quick sauce with the pan drippings, adding shallots and red wine, then finishing with butter. Paired with the pears, the goose really did have nice flavor and while it was a little gamey, the "wild" flavor wasn't at all overwhelming.

Just add wine.

This paired really well with our new favorite wine (Saint Cosme Cote-du-Rhone) and overall, I was pretty happy with my first effort. Next time, though, I'll finish the goose at a lower temperature in the oven (no more than 350) and I'll go a little saucier on the sauce (I was expecting a little more fat to render from the goose, but it was really quite lean).

Next up: possibly involving the slow-cooker, then making a ragu. Or going the citrus route with an orangey pan sauce. We've got three more breasts left in our share, so we've got some room to experiment.