A goose baked in the oven, according to the tradition that has developed in Russia, is a festive dish and no one will cook it every day, therefore, no simplifications and adaptations to modern cuisine, as well as no complaints about the low qualification of the hostess, are accepted. The Christmas goose, which over the years of forced atheism has become just a New Year's goose, is prepared once a year and is worthy of all respect.
The question immediately arises, how to distinguish the old goose from the young? I must say that the goose baked in the oven must be young, nothing will come of the old, except disappointment. If the goose is frozen and, accordingly, chopped, then all that remains is to take the seller’s word - no age testing is possible in this case. Visually, the old from the young can be distinguished by the color of the paws and beak. In the old, they are reddish, and in the young they are light yellow. Another difference is that the young one has a convex fleshy breast, while the old one has a more sunken and bony breast. But, if a person first or not often sees geese, then he will easily get confused where is fleshy and where is bony ...
Such a delicate dish, like a goose baked in the oven, does not tolerate haste, so buy the bird ahead of time, at least two days before the celebration. The procedure for placing the goose in the oven must be carefully prepared. Goose fast food - this, sorry for the expression, is absurd.
The frozen goose must be thawed slowly in the refrigerator, it will take at least a day. Then you have to arm yourself with tweezers and tear up all the remnants of the plumage of the bird. Take the scissors and cut the wings to the very shoulders, in no other way to protect them from burning is not possible. Also cut off all visible fat, which usually accumulates in the abdominal cavity and at the neck of the bird. In general, a goose is a very fat creature, in percentage meat / fat, somewhere around 50%. A fact may seem like a flaw to someone, but it is this fact that makes it possible to cook such an excellent dish as a goose baked in the oven.
Now pierce the skin on the legs and breast of the goose with a knitting needle or skewer and proceed to water procedures: boil water in a large pan and dip in boiling water of our darling, if there is no hook, you can dip in two stages, first the upper part, and then the lower one. Keeping it in water for more than a minute is not recommended. Use caution when dipping.
We take large salt, mix it with black pepper and other spices to the taste of the cook, for example, you can use: dried sage, caraway seeds, coriander or basil. Who likes garlic flavor - adds crushed garlic. We rub the goose inside and out with the mixture and leave it in this position for another day, of course, in the refrigerator.
It's time for stuffing. At this stage, the cooks preparing the dish "Goose baked in the oven", the recipe allows you to show creative abilities in full. This, first of all, concerns the composition of minced meat. Fantasy has no limits, for minced meat go: white bread, beef liver, onions, raisins, dried apricots, prunes, apples, sauerkraut and much more. The choice is yours. Strongly stuffing the goose with minced meat is not necessary, during the cooking process it will expand and doubt if there is not enough free space. It remains to sew up the incision and tie the legs with the goose so that they do not stick out in different directions.
We take a baking sheet and put a wire rack on its sides. Pour water in a baking sheet, about a centimeter deep, and place the bird breast down on the wire rack. The temperature in the oven should be 200C. In this position, the goose is baked for a quarter of an hour. After this time, we turn it over to the back, reduce the temperature to 160C and continue cooking for about two hours. The goose is ready when a clear liquid flows from a puncture with a needle. Goose slices, baked in the oven, of course, can not be compared with the whole - neither kind nor taste. So we tried not in vain.
Enjoy your meal!