28 December 2011

Christmas Cooking Notes

Geese from the butcher, "medium" but quite large, 5.5 kg min each. Removed legs for confit. Roasted crown of -- started 220 for 15-20 minutes, reduced to 200, did not take very long -- removed when breast was 70C outer, closer to 65C near the bone. Was very nice. Served the four of us well, with not much leftover. For the other one, removed the breasts and wrapped them together for the freezer, for a boneless roast later in the winter. Rendered all the fat out of everything and made the confit. Great yield of fat this year. Full large jar with the 4 legs, plus another sizeable jar of the pure stuff.

Chestnut dressing: poor chestnuts, kind of dry and low yield, very tedious to peel, so not nearly as many as for Thanksgiving. But overall the dressing was better. I attribute this entirely to the stock used. This one was made with roast turkey stock (from the thanksgiving turkeys) rather than chicken stock. Turkey stock is liquid gold. I don't know why, but it's always the best bird for stock. So next thanksgiving I need to get turkeys early just to make stock. I hope I remember this plan in time.

Green bean casserole and mashed potatoes were fine. Used King Edwards for the spuds. No complaints.

Cranberry relish was really good, and an excellent counter to the rich goose. I think it goes even better with goose than it does with turkey. Unfortunately we likely won't be able to get fresh cranberries whenever we get around to eating the goose legs.

Dessert involved "cake fountains", which are essentially fireworks you stick into your cake. Unusually for us, this did not lead to any fires, injuries, or property destruction.

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