# Sous Vide Whole Goose?



## willcalderwood (Nov 25, 2013)

I'm doing Christmas this year for the first time - and while I'm aware that the purist sous vide chefs would say portion up the goose and cook the breast / legs separately at different temperatures - I can't possibly serve a Christmas goose like that!

I'm also aware that the general advice is not to sous vide a whole bird - clearly it'll have to be well stuffed to get rid of the air cavity inside, and then left in the water bath for a good length of time at a relatively high temperature to ensure it's cooked through.

Does anyone have, or has anyone seen any information on this? I have two 4kg geese. I was thinking 10 hours at 65c and then dry them off and throw them in a fan oven at 240c until crispy - probably 20-30 minutes.

Any advise, tips, tricks or info would be useful before I ruin a Christmas meal. My concerns would be the amount of fat, and whether 65c would be how enough to render most of it to liquid? Most of the far in a goose is just under the skin, so I suspect the time in the oven would deal with a lot of this fat.

Thanks.


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## dcarch (Jun 28, 2010)

I have done an 18 lb turkey whole, from frozen.

dcarch


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## willcalderwood (Nov 25, 2013)

What temperature/time did you use? Were the results better than an oven cooked turkey? Did you brown it in the oven at the end? Did anyone die of food poisoning? ;-)


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## dillbert (Jul 2, 2008)

goose and turkey are not the same thing.

goose, and duck, have a lot more fat. 

traditionally "roasting" will produce temperatures where the fat melts / renders out. 

not so sure sous vide will get there - you may wind up with nicely cooked meat and gobs of unappealing fat.

do let us know how it turns out!


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## willcalderwood (Nov 25, 2013)

I was hoping for a little more info before I try the recipe...

I'm well aware that turkey is very different to goose - in my opinion turkey is foul (pun intended!) - dry and bland.

From my very unscientific research, fat will start to melt at around 60c - so I should be able to get rid of some of it in the water bath - hopefully enough for some potatoes!

Anyone got any thoughts on stuffing and or seasoning? It would be good to stuff it with something not too absorbent so that it might be edible afterwards. Anyone absorbent will soak up too much fat.

I might have to get myself a test goose - I'll let you know what I do and how it turns out.


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## mike9 (Jul 13, 2012)

One of the best goose recipes I've tried is Gordon Ramsay's Christmas goose.


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## ariel eshel (Mar 28, 2015)

Whole goose sous vide (clean cavity) - defreeze -

1/ put into salt bath (8% salt - 80 gr salt per liter) overnight.

2/ Rinse with clean water by immersing into water bath (change water 3-4 times every 1 hour). Dry it using paper towel.

3/ Put inside the clean cavity orange and lemon (whole, first pierce them with fork), some salt, ground black pepper, several garlic cloves (peeled)  and thyme spring.  

3/ Put into vacuum sac. Immerse in the cooking bath 58c degrees for 18 h. Take it out - cut the sac and put aside the fluids (reserve them for preparing the sauce -  I add to it some honey and red wine - and make it thicker by using Xanthan Gum - 1.5 gr for every 500ml - mix thoroughly while heating on low flame and then let it rest. Sometimes you will need to add some salt before thickening - it's up to your own taste.

4/ Heat oven to 250c degrees - prepare a mixture of honey/olive oil/red dry wine and pour it over the goose (the honey will accelerate the browning reaction). Put the goose into the oven for 15 min just before serving.

Good luck!!!


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