Much to my delight, my damascus Lefever GE 12b is turning into an excellent heavy field gun. I'll be refinishing the barrels this off season. I took this big canada over the weekend in central WA with nice shot 5's.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Great picture, Mark! I hope that it eats as well as it looks. Ha!

And I would second your kind wishes for all here as well.

Thanks. I hope it eats well too. I made the mistake of trying to roast my last big honker, and I've had shoes that were more tender. I'm trying to decide between smoking, grilling into kabobs with peppers and bacon, or searing the breasts skin side down, rare, like steak.

Nice pic. I especially like the contribution of color and texture those stalks lend.

In the crock pot with taters, carrots, onions and other usual suspects I find goose breast a passable substitute for chuck roast.

Cut the breast meat into small steaks and cube them, then fix 'em however you prefer. I've had it floured and fried, just like chicken fried steak, and it was really good. Cubing helps a lot.

SRH

like mike said.....like chuck roast....dice into 3/4in cubes and make soup or stew in a slow cooker....I add some onion soup mix along with Mikes ingredients and any other veggie ya like...sometimes I also make some dumplings.....

Great tips guys, thanks.

I'm starting a roux in a few minutes while the geese thaw out. Then it's celery, onion, green peppers, garlic, etc. and slow cooked with the roux and seasonings. Mark, nice photo. Gil

Mark - You may want to try this sauce. Breast out the bird, marinate it in Italian Salad Dressing, and cook no more than Medium rare.

1 10 oz. Jar red currant jelly
1 ½ C. dry Sherry
3 oz. Lemon juice
2 oz. Soy sauce
2 oz. A-1 Sauce
3 oz. Catsup


Blend first 6 items and simmer over low heat until reduced. (Approximately 45 min) Do not overcook, or sauce will become caramel.

Grille breasts quickly (3-4 min per side) until rare or med. rare.

Slice across the grain, arrange on plate and drizzle with warm sauce. Cook up some wild rice, and marinate the cook in red wine, and you're good to go!
Enjoy!

Ahh... Our grain fed waterfowl from the interior. Infinitely better than those from the saltwater side of the state!! Congrats. While stuffed and roasting whole is the Christmas tradition, I'm with Tudurgs to marinate the breast filets and cook and serve like rare flank steak. Legs and thighs in the crockpot.

I had a smoked Canada goose last weekend. the bird was plucked with skin and fat intact. It was smoked after brining with the meat on the rare side. Sliced thin and it was delicious.

Wow! That sounds amazing.

You think your seaside geese are bad, just try our resident Georgia golf course birds. A steady diet of grass clippings and pesticided mole crickets make for some really dandy eating!

On the other hand grain fed Saskatchewan Speckle-bellies smoke up better than Turkey IMHO. We're having a deep fried butterball turkey and a smoked pork shoulder which we'll pull and make barbeque sandwichs topped with home made vinegar cole slaw for dinner tomorrow...Geo

Merry Christmas all!

Mark - Two disclaimers - if the bird is a big, old bird, I don't care what you do to it, it will be tough. Someone gave me the breasts off a bird with a 60" wingspan (!) and it was so tough you couldn't cut the gravy.
Secondly, don't forget the part about marinating the cook in red wine

Love the picture

have not hunted waterfowl for years - but a whole roasted goose was a tradition back then- Don't know where the recipe went- but the cavity was filled with a few potatoes onions and I think apples - the stuffing was tossed but it mellowed the flavor just right.

Ive had good luck with potentially tough meat like big turkey breasts n thighs...even legs, by putting it in a good sized ziplock with some olive oil, garlic & herbs/seasoning (I love Cummin) & then give it a thorough beating with my hard rubber kitchen mallet.Let it rest for a half hour & repeat...seems to break up the fibers well, & the oil carries the seasoning into the meat.Also its pretty thin now & cooks fast without drying...if your sauteeing in a pan it does a great job
Hope its good however you do it up,
Merry Christmas lads
Franc

I'll eat snow geese. I won't waste a round of ammunition on a Giant Canada at this point in my life. It seems like most of them I've eaten had developed a taste for river mollusks that accumulate just down from the sewage plant on the river.
A friend grinds the whole, 'shitten mess that is a dead Canada goose and adds beef or pork to make jerky.
Not jerky that is as good as regular beef or pork jerky, but, tolerable jerky.


Best,
Ted

Decades ago there was a guy in Beaver Dam Wisconsin That would pluck and clean your birds. We would drop off our birds and have lunch at Chili John's. Chili John's is still there and well worth the chile, burger/fries or a great breakfast but not open on Sunday. The guy is long gone, forced to close by his wife and kids because the odor was too much.
So we went to breasting the Canadas and cooking the breasts ala Tudugs, high heat, fast, rare.
The leg/thighs get sour cream loooong cooking.-Dick

Mark; have a wonderful Christmas.
I laughed at the quote "and it was so tough you couldn't cut the gravy." I have shot several geese, some were wonderful, some were as this fellow described.

I got word yesterday that my 16 Gauge You did the stock on was shipped to me. It will be the first time it has been in my hands in 5 years.

God Bless all there!
Sam Ogle, Lincoln,NE

Geese can be a lot like Brant along the east coast. Their edibility all depends on what they have been eating. We would shoot Brant if they were coming from the West or even the North but learned that from the East or South they have been into Sea Cabbage and made the worst dirty diaper seem mild. Milk baths can reduce many strong flavors but you needed a gas mask just to clean the birds. No person could stand the stink once they started eating the Sea Cabbage. The dog did not even want to retrieve them for fear that he would have to eat them later. Smart dog.

Is there any truth in the old wive's tale that you look at the anal opening on brant, and if they are stained brown, don't eat them - they have been feeding on mollusks. If there is a green stain, go ahead - they have been on vegetation

Tudurgs, I've never taken brant, so can't speak to your 'vent' coloration question directly, but do know that redheads taken along the Texas costal marshes can have an awful taste & smell & they do not if taken from the northern parts of the state before they get to the coast. That costal marsh muck and whatever they are feeding on simply permeates the birds & you'd just as well be trying to eat a merganser. Alligators might like 'em well enough.

Mark

did you cook the bird for Christmas?

if so, what recipe and how was it.

I sure did! The recipes here were invaluable. I marinated the breasts in italian dressing with herbs, seared the breast skin side down in oil and butter, with slits in the skin to help the fat render. They swelled up to about 2" thick during cooking, so I seared them 15 min. on the skin side, and 5 min. on the other. They came out rare, and then I let them sit for ten minutes. I then used a variation of the recipe above for the sauce, using Major Grey's Chutney, A-1 steak sauce, soy sauce, and dry sherry. Wow. It was one of the most delicious wild game meals I've ever had. Amazing! It was like a finely grained steak, and the sauce was the finishing touch.

I'm really glad too, because if I couldn't get goose or duck to my liking, then it would be hard to justify taking more of them...

Looks to me like you got it about perfect, Mark! Over-cooking is very close to vulcanizing. Are those okra blanched or pickled?

Back to the goose, I sometimes make 'goose bites', sautéing chunks of the breast in a combination of unsalted butter & Edes Steak Seasoning, an Amarillo secret condiment. One 800- five three seven fifty-nine zero two.

Mark,

That looks great. Merry Christmas.

Having hunted waterfowl for over 68 yrs. I have eaten it in every way possible, some good some bad, however, while hunting in Canada 40years ago I had it served as an appetizer. Save your beacon grease, cut breasts cross grain and diagonally and drop in hot grease. Remove almost at once to drain on paper towels. This is great when you don't have enough for a complete meal. I almost forgot to mention that you place flour and seasoning in bag to dust cut meat before frying.













wishing you all a Happy and healthy NEW YEAR!!!! Pilgrim