Taste of goose?

[MattC]

I've never eaten wild goose. The one time I ate farm-raised goose, I couldn't tell you it wasn't chicken. I'm in Wisconsin, and I am awfully tired of all of the geese around here that are so popular and brazen that in some places you could walk up and slap one before it flew away. Part of this is due to people feeding them. Due to sheer volume of poop, they are a pest in my book. So I have the idea of hunting them this year, but I wouldn't feel right doing that if I wasn't going to eat them.

Can anyone give me description of the taste of wild goose? Yeah, I know it's asking a lot to describe it over the internet, but I'd appreciate the attempts. Any favorite recipes?

And does anyone here hunt geese in the Kenosha or Racine areas of Wisconsin?

 

[bensdad]

Here's how hard it is to explain... What does chicken taste like? What does beef taste like?

I like goose as jerky. I also like it grilled like a steak (slice the breasts into 3/4 in. thick slabs, soak them in Italian dressing, grill them med/rare... lots of cracked pepper).

The only reason I like either of those methods is that they both hide the taste of goose pretty effectively.

I've never eaten anything but the breasts. Oh, wait, that's not true. I've had goose liver pate'. That was pretty good on crackers. Don't know how to make it though.

 

[Sunray]

"...walk up and slap one..." Don't try that. Even in jest. Geese have no sense of humour and will bite you then beat on you with their wings. One smack from a goose's wing can break bones. Saw a Canada goose defending its road killed mate in Toronto one time.(the geese are so plentiful and aggressive that a lot of lakeside parks are unusable) Friggin' thing had to have been 5 feet plus tall with an 8 foot wing span.
"...never eaten..." Ever had any game bird? They're not greasy like a domestic goose. The flavour depends on what grasses it has been eating.

 

[EricTheBarbarian]

tastes like meat. what does the color green look like, what does hot or cold feel like.

 

[Afy]

Make Foie Gras from the liver...

 

[dfaugh]

Only eaten (canada) goose once...To me it tasted like dark meat chicken....

As mentioned, preperation makes a difference, especially to remove the gamy taste. Overall, not bad eating.

 

[buck460XVR]

I used to raise domestic geese years ago and loved to eat them. Gave up hunting Canadians cause I didn't like to eat 'em. State of Wisconsin frowns on the waste of game animals and a warden told me it was illegal to give em away( that's why he quit huntin' 'em). I do have a good recipe for wild goose tho..

Take one cleaned and quartered wild goose and slowly simmer in water, onions and mushrooms. After about 4 hours, remove the goose... add noodles and vegetables to the broth and continue to simmer. Take the cooked goose, dice into one inch cubes and throw away.

 

[GRB]

MattC,

My guess is that if you thought a domesticated goose tasted like chicken, then you will think a wild goose tastes like a wild chicken.

ASll the best,
GB

 

[Dave McCracken]

Mom's recipe....

Excise the breast meat, remove the skin and place on a baking tray lined with foil. Add Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder to taste. Cover with foil. Roast until you have an internal temperature of 130, then remove the top foil and continue until the temp reaches 140. Meat will be rare, but delicious. Make gravy from the drippings.

Meanwhile, use the breast skin to grease the bottom of a very large pot. Sear some peeled, sliced carrots, top with chopped onions, potatoes and add the goose. Fill to cover the goose, put lid on and simmer. Add bullion cubes, garlic, rosemary, a bay leaf,wine and/or soy sauce to taste.

After a couple hours, remove the goose, take meat off the bones and discard the skeleton. Dice the meat and add any leftover breast, if any. Add peas, corn and potatoes, let come to a boil and then cool. Preferably leave it outside on a cold night.

Next day, remove any congealed fat, warm to just under a boil and make Bisquick dumplings, using the recipe on the box. Sprinkle dumplings with caraway seeds. Serve hot...

 

[koja48]

Split the breasts, pound thin (1/4"-3/8"), marinate in beer & soy sauce. Wrap around swiss cheese, thin ham slice, & 1/2" jalapeno, wrap with bacon slice, toothpick together, season with salt & pepper, & grill indirectly on the barbeque. Works well with duck, also. Folks who profess to "hate" duck/goose don't believe me when I tell them what it is.

Cross-grain 1/4" breast slices seasoned with salt & pepper, garlic & sauteed in butter are also good as is jerky. I've also had goose pepper sticks, which were excellent.

 

[doubleg]

If its tastes anything like a grouse then .

 

[Zeke/PA]

Geese are very good stuffed and roasted as you would a turkey and the gravy is excellent. All dark meat of course with a beef-like texture.
My absolute favorite recipe:
Using uncooked breast of goose. slice longways about 3/8 inch thick, dip in egg batter and bread crumbs, deep fry.
Delicious!! Zeke

 

[Bwana John]

Rip out breasts.
Cube meat into ~1" squares.
Wrap square with bacon strip and secure with toothpick.
Barbque.
Best eaten cold in the blind the next day with a dippin sauce of hot mustard , horseradish , and sour cream .

 

[MattC]

Thanks for the replies and recipes!

 

[Len S]

I live in the peoples republic of IL. About the only good thing you can say about IL is it has good deer hunting and good goose hunting. We kill a large number of canadas every year. There is a big difference between cooking it so it is good, med rare, or what some would consider safe, which is well done. When we make goose steak sandwhiches( goose breast steaked seasoned with sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper and grilled or broiled served on a kauffmans onion roll) we go with med rare. Goose poppers are generally well done. A easy one is a whole goose breast on the bone skinned in a slow cooker with 1 cup apple cider and fav BBQ suce, start early AM should be done for dinner. Meat should slide off the bone. Add more sacue ALWAYS slice thin. Good luck and enjoy


Len

 

[12-34hom]

Tastes like flying carp.

Enjoy...

12-34hom.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

We used to kill hundreds of them just north of there, near Theresa and Waupun. My mother would stuff them with apples and onions and cover them with bacon (we skinned them versus plucking) and bake them in an oven bag. Very tasty. One year we had so many we started fileting all the meat off them and grinding them into hamburger. Even made sausage out of them a few times (with added pork). They are very lean and all dark meat.

 

[Liberty1776]

the breast is best grilled to medium, medium rare, like bensdad said. however, a pan full of nice, fat thighs, browned and then simmered in some red wine, onions, garlic and a can of beef broth, served up on rice is some awfully fine eating..."Even you couldn't say no to that, Gollum... "

 

[RKellogg]

Shoot one , cook it , and then you will know that they tast like crap .

 

[Lambo119]

Goose on the grill.

This recipe will even make a snow goose (aka: rat with wings) palatable.

Bone goose breast into one single boneless piece. Fillet and fold breast until you have about a 1/2 inch thick semi rectangular piece of meat. Marinate for at least three hours in the juice from 1 can of crushed pineapple with 1/4 cup of juice from medium hot pepperoncini salad peppers. Place mixture of crushed pineapple and minced salad peppers on meat. You will want about 1 part peppers to 3 parts pineapple salt and pepper and roll into a meat roll. The more juice you can trap in the roll the more moist the finished product will be. Wrap completely in bacon and spray with olive oil. Sear on very high heat until bacon starts to skin up then grill on medium low heat occasionally spraying grill with olive oil to create smoke until done. Meat should look like a nasty black football when done. But peal away the bacon and it is great! The olive oil smoke really adds a unique flavor to the sweet and spicy meat. Also works with wild turkey.

I know this sounds like allot of work but it is worth it and really not that hard.

 

[Oldnamvet]

I always liked them hickory smoked. And no comments about them being hard to light.

 

[BigV]

Here in Ohio we have lots and lots of geese. We have so many that the DNR has a special season (early fall) in an attempt to reduce the numbers. It was not always that way here in Ohio. I remember as a young lad (about 16) jump shooting geese off the Cuyahoga River. It was a great day just to see a couple of geese. When all the ponds froze over, the river was the place to hunt. I use to cook the whole goose. Dip the bird in boiling water and pluck off all the feathers. Stuff it full of apples and bake for 3 to 4 hours. As I recall, the legs and thighs were extremely tough, but the breast meat wasn’t too bad. Now I just cut the skin at the breast and pull the skin and feathers back to expose the breast meat and using a fillet knife bone out both sides of the breast and throw the rest away.
The breast is dark meat that slightly resembles roast beef with a little stronger flavor.
A couple of easy recipes for cooking.
Cut the breast into medallions about 1/4 “ thick.
Put 4 or 5 green onions into a blender, or food processor along with 1 cup of Honey, 2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce and 2 Teaspoons of ground Ginger. Mix well until mixture is a greenish brown. Place the goose medallions into a 1 gallon zip lock bag and pour the Marinate mixture over top. Close and refrigerate the goose overnight. Cook on a grill for 2 to 3 minutes each side. Meat should be cooked med. If overcooked it will be a little tough. I guarantee you will enjoy goose prepared this way.

Also as stated above, goose breasts make great jerky! Use the same recipe you use for beef or venison. Cut ½” strips lengthwise with the grain of the meat about ¼” thick. Smoke or dehydrate as you normally would. The texture is fantastic.

 

[bad LT]

I always liked them hickory smoked. And no comments about them being hard to light.

I really like smoked goose. I will be getting a smoker soon just to smoke geese. If you guys don't like geese, feel free to let them fly to my area - I really like them

 

[olazul]

This is the best Goose recipe I've ever had!!! It tastes like very good pot roast.

Cube breast meat and brown in a skillet with some oil. In a crock pot put in a can of cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup. Sautee onions and garlic and add this to the crock pot with some red wine. I like carrots as well. If you want potatoes wait to add until the last 2 hrs or so. Put the crock on the long setting and viola!

Enjoy,

Olazul

 

[Oldnamvet]

Took this about 6 hours ago from a friends office window. They go on for about a quarter of a mile like this -- seem almost tame but don't get too close or they gang up on you.