Roast goose ballotine

This season the general public will order 330,000 geese for Christmas, and 12 million turkeys. Caterers will take up less than their fair share of the former: maybe one for every thousand gobblers they buy. Admittedly, that's a guess. It's assuming that a few brave chefs dotted around the country will resist the easy solution. Is this small minority facing unnecessary hassle and expense at a time when kitchens should avoid problems?

Outside the industry, though, goose sales increase by 5% year on year. British poultry farmers can barely keep up with the demand, despite the fact that, measured on a meat-per-pound basis, goose costs as much as fillet steak.

Are restaurants right to steer clear of it? Yes, it's fatty - although less so than duck - but the fat is a plus factor in kitchens where confits are popular. Yes, it's much harder to carve than the protein blocks of a modern turkey, but it's easily boned and stuffed, making portioning easy. And yes, it's pricey, but it's also profitable.

At Sodexho's Allium, in London's Dolphin Square hotel, where head chef Peter Woods cooks under the guidance of Anton Edelmann, a £35 goose, giving 10 portions, is on the lunch menu for £17.50. Even allowing for the other ingredients, that's a generous return. Outside of the capital, £12 should still generate a gross profit of about 65%.

Anton Edelmann

When he left the Savoy earlier this year, Anton Edelmann had been the longest-serving head chef (21 years) at the hotel since it opened 104 years ago. It's a role that has given him a unique insight into changing food fashions, both in the UK and internationally.

As principal chef of Sodexho's Director's Table, with the task of developing concepts and managing training, he's ideally qualified to pass on experience to the 60 senior cooks working within the group.

In his parallel role as chef-patron at Allium (launched last month on the site of Rhodes in the Square) he insists that he's still very much hands-on: "I don't think any modern chef can afford to sit back in his office."

Born in Germany, he was brought up in a family that always ate goose and venison at Christmas. It explains why he'll be dishing up a roast goose ballotine in the restaurant this December, even though he'll be serving it with potatoes in goose fat, caramelised onions and roast vegetables rather than the red cabbage and potato dumplings of his childhood memories.

Allium's roast goose ballotine

There's an upside and a downside to roasting goose in ballotine form. The plusses include juicy, tender, evenly cooked meat, coupled with simple portioning. What's missing is the crisp skin that's the main attraction of a bird roasted whole.

• Ingredients (serves 10)
• 1 x 4.5kg goose
• 20g goose or duck fat
• Salt and pepper
• 250g minced pork shoulder
• 250g minced duck legs
• 125g minced pork back fat
• 75g diced foie gras
• 100g mushroom and shallot duxelles
• 1 egg and 1 yolk
• 80ml double cream
• 25g white breadcrumbs
• 25g pistachios
• About 12 fresh sage leaves
• 7 thin slices of prosciutto to cover the joint

Method

Take the giblets out of the carcass and set aside the neck for stock or gravy (1). Pull the leathery lining off the stomach (gizzard). Put the gizzard and heart in a small pan with goose fat, cover and leave to stew very gently on the side of the range till tender (about 90 minutes). Saut‚ the liver in the same fat, keeping it slightly pink.

Boning the goose

Cut out the wishbone, as you would a chicken's (2). Trim away the neck skin.

Lay the goose on its breast. Cut a line down the length of the backbone (3) and ease the flesh and skin from the carcass, first on one side then the other.

The breasts come away easily. The legs are more tightly bedded into their sockets than a chicken's, but can be loosened from the carcass with a stiff-bladed boning knife. Sever the joints between the wings and the carcass.

Cut off the winglets. Bone out the wings. Bone out the legs. To do this, cut around the ends of the drumsticks and scrape back the flesh around them. Free the thigh-bones from the leg meat and cut through the joints attaching them to the drumsticks. Remove the drumsticks.

Turn the pockets of loose skin that were around the drumsticks and wings in on themselves.

Lay the goose skin-side down on the chopping board (4). Cut away strips of fatty skin on either side of the joint so it forms a rectangle (5). Scrape off any thick patches of fat on the skin (6 and 7). Season lightly.

Making the stuffing

Blend the three meats together. Then mix in the chopped gizzard, heart, liver, foie gras, duxelles, eggs, cream, breadcrumbs, pistachios and seasoning by hand (8). Take a little extra care doing this so that the consistency of the farce stays constant throughout.

Forming the ballotine

The objective is to ensure that every portion contains a generous serving of roast goose. Spread the farce through the middle of the goose on either side of the breast (9).

Roll it up. Thread a trussing needle with kitchen string. Stitch up the goose to seal in the stuffing, starting at the neck end (10).

Lay the joint with the stitched join on the work surface. Arrange fresh sage leaves over the breasts. Cover them with overlapping layers of prosciutto. Tie up the ballotine with string to help it keep its shape during roasting (11).

Roasting

Preheat a convection oven to 180¡C, gas mark 4-5, or a little hotter for a conventional oven.

Prepare a trivet in the roasting tin with the leg bones and winglets. Stand the ballotine on the trivet.

Roast for 90 minutes, basting the joint regularly with the fat it renders. Rest for 20 minutes before carving slices to order.

roast goose gravy

Ingredients

• 1 chopped goose bones (carcass, neck, wings, etc)
• 100ml (approx) melted goose fat
• 250g mirepoix (carrot, onion, celery)
• 75cl red wine
• 1 sprig thyme or bouquet garni
• 1.5 litres brown poultry stock

Method

Brown the bones thoroughly in goose fat on top of the range or in the oven. Add mirepoix to the pan and cook out for five minutes. Strain off excess fat. Deglaze with red wine, scraping the bottom of the pan. Boil, skim any residual fat rising to the surface and wipe round the inside edge of the pan. Add the thyme or bouquet garni. Reduce the red wine by three-quarters. Pour half the stock into the pan. Boil and reduce again, skimming to keep the jus bright. A few ladles at a time, add the rest of the stock, reducing after each addition. Strain the concentrated gravy. Season it. Pass it through muslin.

Accompaniments

Roast coarsely chopped root vegetables and whole cloves of garlic in goose fat. Add a few boiled baby Brussels sprouts for colour.

Caramelise small onions or shallots in clarified butter on top of the range in a single layer. Cover with film and leave for 30 minutes for residual heat to finish cooking them.

Yields, pricing and ordering

Yield relates closely to the quality of the raw material. Birds that have been fattened rapidly to reach a saleable weight may have low lean-to-fat ratios. Wet plucking, becoming quite rare, may leave residual water in the fat and carcass that will evaporate during cooking and reduce yield. Frozen birds may leech water and juices during defrosting, especially when thawed too fast.

• Geese weights: 4.5-6kg (drawn weight, including giblets)
• Allium goose: 4.5kg
• Average fat (plus skin): 33% of drawn weight (can be higher on cheaper commercial birds)
• Allium rendered fat for further use: about 1kg
• Carcass plus giblets: about 25% of drawn weight
• Lean meat: 40% on a top-of-the-range bird. Not all of this is accessible and some will probably end up in the stock.
• Weight loss in roasting: 30%
• Anticipated servings: 1 x 4.5kg goose, roasted on the bone and trimmings: eight portions
• Allium goose ballotine: 10 portions
• Small geese from a wholesale butcher start at about £35.
• Expect to pay between £6.50 and £8.20 per kg for fresh oven-ready birds, maybe less if ordering in bulk. Long-legged ones that need drawing should be cheaper.
• Goose is growing in popularity and there's a rush of orders after 1 December. It's a seller's market. Prices may rise and catch out latecomers.
• The British Goose Producers' website, www.goose.cc lists its members addresses with contact numbers.

Quality points

All geese are free-range, but good husbandry affects quality. Feed and stocking density influence the kind of meat and fat. Rate of growth also affects these: birds should be five to six months old at slaughter. Golden-skinned geese may have been finished with maize meal, but are neither better nor worse for this.

Dry-plucking produces a better skin. Most geese are waxed to remove stubble and won't need singeing. Hanging for 10 days improves flavour and tenderness.

Goose fat

It's high in monounsaturated fats (as is olive oil) that most nutritionists claim to be a more healthy form than the saturated fats that you get in red meats.

At Allium, Anton Edelmann renders down the white kidney fat (part of the giblets) and all the fatty skin trimmings to obtain about 1kg of goose fat that can be used for roast potatoes, browning the bones for his jus and for confits.

wines

Recommended by Nicolas Hervohon, sommelier at Allium:

• Quinta de la Rosa (Bergqvist) Douro 2001, Portugal, £25
• Merlot "Domaine Mont-Auriol" Côtes de Thongue 2002, VDP, France, £16.50
• ChÁ¢teau de la Liquière (Les Amandiers) Faugères 2002, France, £21.50
• Syrah "Domaine Rabasse-Charavin" 1999, VDP, France, £33.50
• Shiraz (Millfield) Hunter Valley 2000, Australia, £38