Good evening, my name is Ranger Meaghan joining you from my home
and tonight I'm going to get to do something a little bit different than I normally get
to do. It is the Holidays and we at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters
decided that we wanted to try our hands at
baking and cooking some Victorian holiday fare
and I personally thought this would be
the Golden opportunity to follow
my dreams. And do something I have wanted to do my entire
life. I am going to make
a Christmas goose.
Ever since I was a little kid, and I 1000% blame the Muppet
Christmas Carol for this,
I've wanted Christmas goose. It is the
ultimate Victorian Christmas food item for me. It's something
that just feels so Holidays and so Dickensian. And it's
something that I have never had before in my life.
And I figured if we're going to be doing some Victorian
holiday recipes.
Why not? I chose a modern interpretation of a recipe
published in 1817 in a book called The Cook's Oracle by
William Kitchener. I'll be blunt. Goose is expensive and I
wanted the best odds in making sure it actually tasted good.
So step one of this process before I begin anything else is...
I gotta get the goose.
So we'll be right back.
For this recipe you will need
salt. One onion.
A few Spriggs of Sage or Thyme.
Applesauce, potatoes and carrots,
and of course, goose. Preheat the oven
to 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius, and place your goose on a rack in a baking dish.
Trim the excess fat inside an remove any surprise gizzards inside as
well. You're now going to want to score or stab the skin of the
goose all over with a knife. I didn't film this part because it
looked a little gruesome, but it's a vital step in making sure all the excess fat
drains out. Next step is to salt your goose
rub salt all over the goose, both inside and out. Next,
you're going to stuff it. You can either use actual stuffing,
or you can stuff it with one peeled onion and some spriggs of
Sage or Thyme. I went with
onion. Because that's what the Cratchits did in A Christmas
Carol. You're now going to want to place the goose inside the
oven and bake it for 15 minutes per pound, plus an additional 15
minutes. My goose was 10 pounds, so I cooked it for 2 hours and 45
minutes, basting it continuously throughout.
When there's about 40 minutes left to cook, cut up and add your vegetables to the
bottom of the baking tray and baste them as well. They'll cook
in the goose fat. When the goose
is done, take it out of the oven and let it rest under some foil
for an additional 20 to 30
minutes. Carve it up, plate it, and add some applesauce as a side.
Alrighty it is...
many many many, many many hours later and our Christmas goose is
finally done. So the moment I've certainly been waiting for...
The taste test!
I'm so happy it lived up to all my expectations.
This is really good.
Oh my goodness, this is so good.
I don't want you have to watch me eating, so I'm going to be
right back. Goose makes everything better is what I'm
learning from this experiment.
Uh, this was so worth it.
Thanks work. The flavor is very interesting. I can't quite put
my finger on what it tastes like exactly, because
I've honestly never had anything like this
before. It was a red meat kind of first of all, which did not
expect for a bird, so that threw me off from the very beginning.
It looks like it should taste like Turkey, but it tastes a bit more like roast beef,
but not. I wish I could explain this better, but I genuinely
can't. It's very rich, it's very juicy.
This is a magical bird. A very, very greasy magical bird.
So I think my final verdict,
now having actually had Christmas goose is that it is a
lot of work to make.
A lot of waiting.
Kitchen got very smokey making this goose. That's definitely
something to keep in mind, but it was good!
I can honestly say my childhood dreams have officially come
true. I now know what a Christmas goose tastes like.
The Muppets did not lie to me after all, so
I'll consider this is success.
So from everyone here at Longfellow House-Washington's
Headquarters National Historical
Site, we just want to wish you a happy and safe holiday.
We'll see you next time.
Bye.