Barbeque Goose

Last November I cooked a roast goose which turned out really well, but it took forever to prepare. It involved separating, by hand, the skin from the goose body while leaving the skin still covering the goose, steaming the goose for awhile in the oven in a roast pan to remove part of the fat, then letting the goose stand uncovered in the refrigerator overnight before cooking it. I found a recipe for barbequing a duck that I thought would work with a goose and take much less time to cook, but I found that goose is not available for most of the year. So I've been looking forward to Thanksgiving time again as another time to find goose in the store and try it again. I bought an 11.4 pound Goose at Albertsons.

Thawed and out of the package it oozes fat. The outer layer of skin covers a cushion of fat that must be 1/4 inch thick or thicker of fat. No wonder the goose can stay warm while swimming in very cold water.


The hind end is rolling with fatty tissue that needs to be removed.

The hind end after I've removed most of the loose skin and fat.

After removing excess fat from both ends, you perforate the skin with a sharp knife in a series of sidewise cuts being careful not to cut into the inner meat. This provides avenues for the fat to escape while boiling the carcass to remove additional fat. Then I put the goose in a boiling pot, each end in for 15 minutes (30 minutes total), covered in foil (not shown) to help retain the heat.

The water, after boiling, is saturated with goose fat.

I then put the goose on our outdoor grill. I have four burners. I lit the outer two burners and put the goose over the inner two, unlit, burners. I put a little bit of tin foil over the outer edges because I was concerned that the fat pouring out of the goose during the process would cause a fire that would engulf the ends of the goose.

I cook my barbeque duck this very same way, half the size, for 45 minutes. I figured the goose would take twice as long. However, after 45 minutes I inserted the meat thermometer and it already registered a temperature of 190 degrees, when I only needed 180. So I pulled the goose off, brushed on a coat of Hoisin sauce and put it back on the grill for 10 minutes.

The goose, off the grill, ready for carving.

I let it cook a little long, but because it is so fatty it still came out very well. I suspect it cooks faster than the duck because the goose is longer and skinnier. Below, a plate of carved goose meat. The top pieces are of the inner, much less fatty pieces. The best pieces were the outer slices with a bit of the outer fat and sweet Hoisin covered skin. We had extra Hoisin sauce at the table to add a touch of sweetness to the inner meat.

We ate it Wednesday late afternoon the day before Thanksgiving while Dave and Bonnie Kenison were visiting. It was a very nice lead-up to the big bird the next day. This cooking style was much more simple than my last goose and one I intend to use again. Fun to have an unusual meal with friends and family over the holidays. By the way, I turned on the grill afterwards to burn off the excess fat that dropped from the goose during the cooking process. It turned into a conflagration with flames leaping out from the grill cover. All of the effort to remove excess fat is very necessary and the end result is no more fatty than a regular duck.