Men's Journal

An urban nuisance, a golf course menace — but when prepared correctly, delicious.

By Elaine Glusac; Photographs by David Prince; Feathered goose provided by Fingerlakes Hunting, fingerlakeshunting.com

Unless you’ve had Canada goose or venison fresh from the wild, you haven’t eaten properly,” says John Manikowski, author of Wild Fish & Game Cookbook. Although it’s the traditional Dickensian Christmas dish, goose is now nearly forgotten as an entrée, mostly due to overhunting and habitat loss, which led to the bird’s near-extinction in the 1960s. “It’s one of the lost foods of our society,” mourns executive chef Paul J. Lynch of FireLake restaurant in Minneapolis, who roasts a Canada goose from a nearby game farm for his family each Christmas. (USDA regulations prohibit restaurants from serving wild game of unknown origins.) “It’s so rich, so tender, so deeply satisfying, it’s silky. You feel you’re serving something special.”

With protection and reintroduction programs, the Canada goose’s population has exploded. But as an entrée, the commonplace Canada is exotic. The biggest hurdle in cooking a holiday goose is actually getting your hands on one.

There are a variety of great Canada substitutes, ranging from the simple corn-fed white geese sold by South Dakota’s Schiltz Goose Farms (from $39; roastgoose.com) up to a more flavor-rich boutique-raised African Brown goose from Heritage Foods USA (from $167; heritagefoodsusa.com). But if you want a true Canada, there’s a cheaper route: “You can shoot it yourself,” says Manikowski. Hunting the plentiful geese in the wild is actually helpful — last year, nearly 3 million were felled, and that doesn’t even count the geese eradicated per U.S. Fish & Wildlife permit to cull overpopulation.

Although its ducklike flavor stands alone, goose also pairs well — Lynch serves his with a second protein (though not a comparatively flavorless turkey) to bookend the holiday banquet. “In deep winter it’s a great complement to a ham or standing roast. It’s not a meat that will be lost to the side dishes.”

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Christmas Bird

Paul J. Lynch’s recipe for an Asian-accented holiday goose

Ingredients: 1 goose, 4 tsp peppercorns, 2 tsp thyme, 4 bay leaves, 12 cloves, 2 tsp Chinese five spice, 2 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 oz Cointreau, 2 cloves crushed garlic

Method: Grind spices and sugar and stir in Cointreau. Rinse and dry goose’s cavity; remove loose fat and wing tips. Rub half the spice blend over the goose, half (with the garlic) inside the cavity. Wrap tightly in a plastic bag and refrigerate; after 24 hours, remove from bag, pat dry, and place on rack in refrigerator to dry for 24 hours. Before roasting, bring to room temp, pat dry, and prick the skin all over (to release fat during cooking). Place goose breast-up on roasting rack at 250 degrees. Every 30 minutes, rotate, re-prick skin, and turn the oven up 25 degrees. After 2 hours, remove pan to drain fat; return to oven breast-down. After 30 minutes, increase to 375, turn breast-up, and roast until the skin is crisp and the meat tender. Let goose rest one to three hours, carve, and serve warm.

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This article originally appeared in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Men’s Journal.