How to: Cook a goose

Right. Now that we've all had time to recover from the excesses of Christmas, I feel I can sit back with a sense of clinical detachment and tell you about the goose. The goose has been gaining popularity as a Christmas meal among yuppiehood, no doubt due to the influence of celebrity chefhood, because people are getting bored of pasty white turkey, and because geese can't easily be bred intensively, which appeals to the judicious carnivore's conscience. All that aside, though, goose meat has a much more intense and satisfying flavour than turkey. The goose is also something like thirty percent fat by body weight (I exaggerate perhaps, but it's a ridiculous amount of fat), which makes it much less likely to turn out dry.

Sophie Grigson has a couple of good recipes for goose stuffing with cranberry and sage. Stuff the cavity with the stuffing and an onion. You might just want to put one stuffing inside and cook the other in balls outside, as it reduces the cooking time. Seal the cavity with string (or improvise with wooden skewers....). Cover in foil and cook in an oven pre-heated to 190 degrees Celsius. I suggest using a deep oven tray to collect all the fat at regular intervals, which you can use to baste the goose and roast vegetables, and store for future use. Reckon on about half an hour per kilo plus twenty, and remove the foil for the last half hour.

1. The beginning.....

2. Stuffing the goose

3. Sealing the cavity

4. Ready to cook

5. The end product, end section

6. The end product, side elevation

7. Goose fat

Season's apologies....

Click on me to make me bigger...

Dear All,

I can only apologize for my lack of organization, and the fact that I nowadays spend more time in meetings than I care to think about, and hope that you'll forgive me for not getting around to sending you individual Christmas cards. In my defence, the goodwill was there, but time forsook me.

Grovelling aside, I wish you all a nice break from the shameless, mass consumerism (what's the point? The sales are just a few days away....), being trampled over by demented shoppers, run over by crazed mothers and their Bugaboos and general feeling of mania. I hope y'all managed to get that Nintendo Wii for your dearly beloved and that you'll have endless hours of fun playing Guitar Heroes. And finally, all the best for a happy and prosperous 2008.

In the meantime, here's the latest from my kitchen...... still waitin' on those recipes y'all....