Recipe: Roasted Goose with Local Apple Wood Smoked Bacon Stuffing

Here's a good, and fairly classic, recipe for Christmas that evokes visions of "A Christmas Carol" and Ebenezer Scrooge. You can either hunt a wild Canadian goose (one of my vineyard workers did a few years ago – he said it's delicious), buy one at the poultry farm in Calverton or get one at the supermarket. But the star ingredient isn't the goose at all. It's the ... wood.

Recently, my friend cut down a 100-year-old apple tree in his yard and had given some to my husband and I for use in our fireplace. But rather than burn it for heat, I thought, "I want to use it for smoking. I want to make apple wood smoked bacon." I had been thinking of writing a roasted goose recipe for the holidays, so with the apple wood smoked bacon, I decided to make a bacon stuffing for the goose.

Roasted Goose

Roasting a goose is fairly straightforward, similar to roasting a chicken, turkey or duck. There's no reason to be afraid of it. The first time I made goose, I was expecting it to taste like duck, but to me it tastes more like the dark meat of turkey. I love the dark meat of turkey, so it was good to get a whole bird that tasted like the dark meat.

I remember hearing about "fattening up the goose," but it's true – you want a fat goose. I've roasted geese that were fat, meaty and juicy, and geese that were skinny, scrawny, and anorexic, with hardly any meat on the bones -- needless to say, the latter were a disappointment. I am not sure how to really tell a fat one from a skinny one in the store. I guess you just need to look at it closely.  

Put the goose into a big pan – I put onions and root vegetables (parsnips, turnips, carrots) in the bottom of the roasting pan to keep the bird from sticking to the pan. Roast at 325 degrees. Figuring the average goose is 8 pounds to 10 pounds, roast it for 3 hours to 3 1/2 hours.

Local Potatoes Roasted in Goose Fat

The roasted goose, like a roasted duck, will give off a lot of fat, so you want to save the fat for using another time. Let the fat cool down to close to room temperature, then drain it off into a big glass jar. If there are too many solid bits, I strain it through a paper towel, or a coffee filter with small holes punched in it.

It is easier when the goose or even duck fat is made in advance, but one way you could do it is, when the goose has roasted about 2 of the 3 hours, drain off some of the hot goose fat into a roasting pan. Toss chunks of local potatoes into the goose fat, add salt, pepper, and fresh herbs like sage, rosemary and/or chives. You can add some chopped bacon too. Put the potatoes into the oven for the last45 minutes to an hour that the goose is roasting.

Local Apple Wood Smoked Bacon

You need a smoker to do this recipe, so that may rule out a lot of people. You can ask a friend to smoke it for you, or else, just buy some good thick bacon from the store - preferably uncut. Frankly, I don't have a smoker at home, but we have two at , so I plan to bring the apple wood over to the Bistro and have Chef Arie smoke the bacon for me.

At the Bistro, Arie smokes duck breasts, duck legs, bacon and fish. He soaks the pork bellies in red wine, salt, a little sugar and fresh herbs for two weeks. Then he smokes them with small bits of hickory or cherry wood that we get from Arie's friend Pete in Southold. Sometimes he gets peach wood from the peach farmer in Wading River, and sometimes apple wood. From my house in Mattituck, we have gotten wood from the plum trees. Arie says that fruit woods give off a sweet smoke.

Bacon Stuffing

I sometimes make stuffing from scratch using leftover ends of bread that I save in my freezer. But, I don't see anything wrong with going to the store and buying pre-packaged stuffing - those dried up bread cubes that come in a box or a bag, with the herbs and seasonings already mixed in. I've tried them, and they're not bad.  I add more fresh herbs, plus onion, mushroom, celery, sausage, bacon, nuts or whatever else I feel like adding. You add hot water, and butter. You can cook it on the stovetop, in the microwave, or in the oven. Add bits of the "local apple wood smoked bacon" or other bacon (pre-cooked), and be sure to add some of the bacon fat too, maybe in lieu of the butter.

Pair with a Local Wine

Pair the goose with a local Long Island merlot. It will go great with the dark, fatty meat of the goose and the roasted flavors. Of course I would serve one of my own merlots if I were making this at home – probably the Traditional Merlot, since that is a good table wine without outstandingly strong oak or tannins or spiciness, so it will not overpower the goose. However, any Long Island merlot will do.