RECIPE AND STYLING GILL MELLER PHOTOGRAPHS ANDREW MONTGOMERY
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“Geese can be cantankerous birds, but I still find them beautiful. What they lack in manners in the field they make up for in the kitchen. The meat is rich and full of flavour, but not overly strong or gamey. Then there’s the fat, which keeps the bird moist as it cooks and adds such flavour and character to the meat. To top it all off, there’s the salty, crisp, golden skin. Traditionally, the first geese of the season were eaten at Michaelmas in late September to mark the start of the new farming year, when tenants would pay some of their quarterly rent to their landlord in the form of a fattened bird. Turkey has since taken precedence at the festive table, but I’m on a campaign to bring back goose.
I like to use good-quality black pudding in the stuffing (Pipers Farm does a fabulous one, but you could use good sausagemeat instead), along with chopped sharp apples, lemon zest and sage. Be sure to collect the fat as it renders from the bird and jar it up for another day. It adds a luscious richness to earthy ingredients, and it’s the ultimate roasting fat for spuds and other roots, including celeriac, parsnips and jerusalem artichokes.” GILL MELLER
Roast goose with black pudding, apples and sage
SERVES 6. HANDS-ON TIME 1 HOUR, OVEN TIME 3 HOURS, PLUS RESTING