Honey and Five Spice Glazed Roast Goose

Method

1. Bring your goose out of the fridge and leave at room temperature for at least one hour before cooking, or longer if you have time. This will allow the meat to lose its chill which helps it to cook more evenly. This is an important rule of thumb and you’ll notice a huge difference with all of your meat cooking if you remember to do this!
   
   

2. Make the stuffing mix: Core one pear, then cut into chunks. Peel one orange (can be blood orange or regular) then cut into chunks as well. Roughly chop onion, then mix everything together with a decent pinch of five spice and salt flakes. Stuff this into the cavity of the goose, ensuring you don’t overfill (so air can still circulate). Pop a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary on top of the stuffing mix in the cavity.
   
   

3. Preheat oven to 220C fan forced (or as high as it goes if your oven doesn’t go this high). Pat goose dry with paper towels, then poke goose all over with a skewer or tip of a sharp knife - this will create small holes in the flesh so that when the fat renders out, it has somewhere to escape. This will ensure you don’t end up with chewy goose fat stuck under the skin and will also give you lots of gorgeous liquid goose fat to cook with afterwards.

    

4. Rub all over with salt (optional: add some olive oil if you’re having trouble getting it to stick). Pop onto a baking tray (make sure it’s not too shallow as a lot of fat will come out during your cook) and bake on high for 10 - 15 mins.

    

5. Reduce heat to 170C and roast for a further 25 mins per kilo (or reduce to 20 mins if you prefer your goose less well done). Baste with goose fat every 30 mins or so, but make sure you don’t leave your oven open too long to keep the heat in. If your goose is browning too fast at any point, cover with foil.
   You will want to pour off the goose fat about halfway through the cook (or any time the pan is looking full of fat drippings).
   
   

6. Combine all glaze ingredients and mix thoroughly, then set aside.
   
   

7. When you have about 1 hour left on your timer, take the bird out of the oven and pour off any remaining goose fat. Glaze by brushing all over with half of the glaze. At this point, you will also want to add in the remainder of the pears and oranges, cut in half and face down. Return to the oven.

    

8. After 30 mins, glaze again with the remaining glaze mixture, plus any that has dripped off into the pan juices.

    

9. Rest for at least 30 minutes loosely tented in foil before serving. Spoon over your goose juices as these are going to be extra delicious after the glaze drips into them.
   
   TIP: Use the goose fat you collect during the cooking time to make some goose fat roast potatoes! Just strain your goose fat before mixing with the potatoes, and you're ready to go. Follow the method from our Duck Fat Potato recipe (here...) for best results.