I breast the residents out, soak the meat in salt water. Then rinse, put in a freezer bag and fill with enough water to cover the meat (keeps it from getting freezer burnt) and put it in the deep freeze.
Try to pluck one if you have all day. You can pull out a hand full of feathers and can't tell where you pulled them from. I think the first suggestion was a good one . It all ends up similar to liver.
pull out a patch of feathers 2" x 2" where the wishbone and breast bone "sternum" meet... down to the bare skin...
now take a sharp knife and make a very shallow slit along the sternum not going into the breast meat but through the skin....
now work your fingers in one side of the slit betwwen the skin and the breast... skin that side of the breast all the way to the wing from the wishbone to the gutbag....
repeat on side two...
now take your sharp knife and cut right down "close as possible" to the sternum on both side and basically fillet the breast off the bone....
cut along the wishbone staying as close as you can... you'll get the picture.... just stay on the bone from one end to the other....
when you get both breast cut out, lay them length wise on a cutting board "after rinsing" and cut them length wise in 1/2 inch or thinner strips ....
now the strips will be 1/2 inch thick and about 6-8 inches long... strip that again till you have 2 or 3, 1/2 by 1/2 strips... then cut them in half...
you will end up with strips 1/2 x 1/2 x 3 to 4 inches long...
put the strips in a boiler and cover with water, take some table salt and salt it down good "i mean turn the meat on top white with salt" mix this up with your hand and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes...
drain it, rinse it 2 or 3 times, cover with water and resalt, let it set.....
you want the rinse water to be clear as you can get it... may take 3 or 4 saltings depending on how bad its blood shot."i shootum in the head"....
put about 1 and 1/2 cups of flour in a ziplock bag ,season to taste, drop a handfull of strips in and shake it up.....
lay strips in "olive oil is my choice" and "LIGHTLY" brown .... THE LONGER YOU COOK IT THE TOUGHER IT GETS....
makes you wonder why nobody likes to eat goose or duck.."do ducks the same way"....
woodie13 what does that jerk meat taste like? And do you mind printing the recipe. I have a lot of those sorry poopers on my pond! I think I need to JERK me a few!
It taste alot like beef jerky. Any deer or beef jerky recipe will work.
Here is my basic recipe (you can taylor your's to your taste)
I usually make jerky out of mine (with the kid's help of course).
2-4 slightly frozen goose breasts (makes it easier to cut)
MARINADE
soy sauce
crushed red pepper-to taste
black pepper-to taste
garlic powder
cajun seasoning-to taste
onion powder
brown sugar-to taste
teriaki sauce
liquid smoke (if using the oven or dehydrater)
Cut the meat in thin, uniform strips and let thaw the rest of the way. (about like bacon, maybe just a little thicker)
Combine ingredients of the marinade. I base this solely on my personal taste.
Put the meat and the marinade in a zip lock bag, add about 1/4 cup of water and put in the fridge overnight.
Prepare the smoker, dehydrater or the oven to the lowest temp possible. For the smoker, soak wood chips in water and wrap in aluminum foil and place on the coals.
Place meat flat on cookie sheets or run a toothpick through each piece and hang on the rack in the oven. Make sure to lay aluminum foil below to catch the drippings if you are using the oven.
If prepared in the oven, rotate the meat on the sheets every hour and a half. Make sure you keep it at warm and not too hot or the jerky will be real crisp.
The last hour or so, brush a little teriyaki sauce over them and you have some good eats. Great blind food as well.
And lastly, invite the woodster to the goosifiction
hpurvis, I had always heard the same thing but if you have a good recipe, it's delicious. For jerky try Woodie13's recipe or for the grill try this. Here is the best recipe I've found for grilling Goose. If you think you don't care for goose meat try em like this.
Cut breast into small chunks. Marinate 4 hrs. Marinate: 2/3 soy sauce to 1/3 sherry Dissolve 4 to 8 tbs. honey in microwave and stir into soy sauce and sherry mixture.
Add 3 garlic cloves.
Press down with weight ( we use a plate) to cover goose with marinate.
After goose has finished marinating--wrap each chunk with a thin slice of bacon add a water chestnut secure on a skewer ( if you use a wooden skewer be sure to soak it in water first) Grill to medium rare. Sprinkle with brown sugar ( very important to do after grilling )
Smiley,
Got one batch in the smoker and two more marinating (one is the snow goose). Got the teriyaki going on with it as well. Should be a good batch, smells good. The other two will be on tomorrow :beer:
If I have just one. I will pluck. It is not that hard, just takes some practice. This past weekend I killed ten. That is a lot of plucking. When I harvest that many I put the duck or goose in a large pot with parfin wax and water. Bring the heat up till feather start to slip. Then take the goose out and the feathers will come out.
Also pinfeathers can be a problem. Start small fire let it go to cools pass the goose over until featers are gone. Nice clean goose.
As far as cooking. I bake,smoke and fan frie.
You have to remember this is not a butterball from the store. The meat is lean.
Bake 20 min. max per pound then then cover and let stand for 20 min.
The goose I cooked monday I started with rubbing olive oil all over goose then what ever spices you like. Then pack the goose with apples or oranges also pore till full apple juice in goose. Then spray goose with oil spray.
NOTE don't cut goose up back just go through the rear.
Thats about it.
I bring these to family dinners and thay don't last long. Most people don't know it was wild.
After my buddies and I have killed some geese, we usually take them back to one central location. I start by laying out all the geese and those who helped shoot them must help clean them. After those guys get started cleaning, I have an emergency and must run to the bathroom. I once had to stay there for 30 minutes. Once the breast are out and the meat has been soaked in salt water I will be the responsible one and remove the pin feathers by using a gas stove and burning them off. This has worked for some time but since my secret is out I will have to start cleaning I'm sure.