I don’t even think I’ve had domestic goose. I’ve had duck. I haven’t generally eaten meat in many years, but I do make exceptions and eat wild game caught by a non-sport hunter.
It’s not like turkey or even the dark meat of turkey … it’s more like a classic roast beef. Even the taste is like beef rather than poultry.
Roasted is good but the best, to me any way, is to have it prepared and smoked like beef jerky. I used to help my mom prepare about fifty of these birds every spring. She was like a surgeon or scientific butcher that could carve a whole bird into a flat single continous piece of flesh the size of a large doormat and thin as cardboard. If done properly, a skilled butcher like my mom would leave behind two pieces of a whole bird. One matt of flesh with no bones and another carcass with just bones and a tiny bit of flesh. These thin layers of flesh and the bony carcass were then smoked in a teepee for about two or three days and dried up like beef jerky and tasted about the same. Goose is also fatty so the jerky was a taste combination of fatty beef, almost like beef jerky slathered with bacon fat. And done this way could last about month or so in cool storage or months if frozen. And it tasted great … to me anyway, I grew up eating this from the time I was very young.
I’m salivating at the thought … I haven’t had that in years now.
The Ojibway/Cree word for smoked goose is … Nah-mesh-tek
and if it makes everyone feel better about it all … almost the entire bird was used for something. All parts were eaten including major organs, except for the intestines. The largest organ is the gizzard which is the size of a grapefruit and entirely sinewy muscle which is roasted over a fire. There was a method for us kids that adults taught us in how to roast the wings like giant shishkabobs over a fire. Usually Elders took their time picking away every bit of flesh from the neck and head during feasts. Feathers were plucked and collected to be made into stuffing for pillows and blankets (I grew up using an ultra thick goose down blanket as a kid that my mom made years ago). Wing feathers were collected and arranged for decorative use or used as a tool as decoys in hunting.
And the birds were only hunted in the springtime … usually in April … which is why we call this month Niska Peesim … Niska is the word for ‘goose’ and Peesim is the word for month … so it means ‘Goose Month’.
They are not normally hunted outside this month because it is difficult to kill, gather and preserve the bird in warmer weather. You can’t gather a couple of birds, butcher them and smoke them any other time of the year because the weather won’t allow it … summer is too warm and the food will be covered in bugs … winter is too cold and will just freeze everything without preserving it by smoking or drying.
Personally … I grew up the first 20 years of my life eating like this every year. But I’m in my 40s now and I haven’t hunted in 20 years and I think I’ve only had about two or three goose meals since then … I miss it but that is the price I paid for living near the city and leading a more modern lifestyle now.
As a Native Canadian who hunted these damned things when I was younger … I always loved learning about ‘cobra chicken’ … it’s how I refer to them now
How do they taste?
I don’t even think I’ve had domestic goose. I’ve had duck. I haven’t generally eaten meat in many years, but I do make exceptions and eat wild game caught by a non-sport hunter.
Like dark roast beef.
It’s not like turkey or even the dark meat of turkey … it’s more like a classic roast beef. Even the taste is like beef rather than poultry.
Roasted is good but the best, to me any way, is to have it prepared and smoked like beef jerky. I used to help my mom prepare about fifty of these birds every spring. She was like a surgeon or scientific butcher that could carve a whole bird into a flat single continous piece of flesh the size of a large doormat and thin as cardboard. If done properly, a skilled butcher like my mom would leave behind two pieces of a whole bird. One matt of flesh with no bones and another carcass with just bones and a tiny bit of flesh. These thin layers of flesh and the bony carcass were then smoked in a teepee for about two or three days and dried up like beef jerky and tasted about the same. Goose is also fatty so the jerky was a taste combination of fatty beef, almost like beef jerky slathered with bacon fat. And done this way could last about month or so in cool storage or months if frozen. And it tasted great … to me anyway, I grew up eating this from the time I was very young.
I’m salivating at the thought … I haven’t had that in years now.
Thanks for letting me know. Apparently I upset people by asking, or daring to do the same as you and be willing to eat hunted meat, but oh well.
The Ojibway/Cree word for smoked goose is … Nah-mesh-tek
and if it makes everyone feel better about it all … almost the entire bird was used for something. All parts were eaten including major organs, except for the intestines. The largest organ is the gizzard which is the size of a grapefruit and entirely sinewy muscle which is roasted over a fire. There was a method for us kids that adults taught us in how to roast the wings like giant shishkabobs over a fire. Usually Elders took their time picking away every bit of flesh from the neck and head during feasts. Feathers were plucked and collected to be made into stuffing for pillows and blankets (I grew up using an ultra thick goose down blanket as a kid that my mom made years ago). Wing feathers were collected and arranged for decorative use or used as a tool as decoys in hunting.
And the birds were only hunted in the springtime … usually in April … which is why we call this month Niska Peesim … Niska is the word for ‘goose’ and Peesim is the word for month … so it means ‘Goose Month’.
They are not normally hunted outside this month because it is difficult to kill, gather and preserve the bird in warmer weather. You can’t gather a couple of birds, butcher them and smoke them any other time of the year because the weather won’t allow it … summer is too warm and the food will be covered in bugs … winter is too cold and will just freeze everything without preserving it by smoking or drying.
Personally … I grew up the first 20 years of my life eating like this every year. But I’m in my 40s now and I haven’t hunted in 20 years and I think I’ve only had about two or three goose meals since then … I miss it but that is the price I paid for living near the city and leading a more modern lifestyle now.