Geese are magic animals. They keep the grass around the house block short during summer, they provide us with enormous eggs in spring and they also feed us with their delicious meat. They really are a backyard farmer’s dream bird. I’m thankful that my mate decided to experiment in keeping a small flock at his place, because it was the introduction to geese that I needed. To be honest, I hate the concept of lawns and being a slave to mowing them, so geese really are just my edible lawn mowers. Keeping lawns green requires a heap of water, which is a bit of a waste just to keep up appearances. And I’m yet to find a mower that doesn’t use some natural resources to operate, electric mowers included. But a living lawn mower that fattens up on the grass – well, that just ticks many practical-living boxes.
I’d never cooked a goose before this year, so as for all new forms of meat cooking I looked to the masters for answers. For goose I headed straight to Hank Shaw, the author of the book Duck, Duck, Goose.
I think the title of his book gives away his goose-cooking prowess. He has a technique I now use for cooking home-raised geese and it works magnificently. It’s simply a matter of removing the breast halfway through roasting, so as not to dry it out, and then crisping the skin with a quick pan-fry before serving, making the most of that delicious crispy skin. You can season the bird however you like; here I use a simple classic that works well.