Seared Goose Breast

[JR8899]

I went out goose hunting for the first time this past weekend. I've heard much debate on the quality of meat, taste, etc.. But with any game / fish I always want to try something for myself before making my opinion. I must say the results speak for themselves! I swear it didn't taste far off from venison or any other red meat. Here's what I did. I first selected the best looking breasts out of the bunch I went with the smallest and cleanest looking bird. I soaked the breasts in salt water over two days and I periodically changed out the water a few times. Then after two days I rinsed them and then put them into a ziplock with worcestershire sauce, soy, teryaki, OJ, pepper, garlic and left them overnight. Then I baked them in the oven at 250F for a bit and I pulled them at about 115 (meat thermometer is key) and then I seared them on a smoking hot cast iron with butter and olive oil. I let them rest and I sliced them like you would a london broil. Came out excellent! And honestly next time I'll probably try less marinade. I went heavy because I was afraid of what they might taste like. Something more simple would work too. Next I'm going to try "pulled pork" style and meateater's recipe for pastrami.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by JR8899

[Jcol6268]

Soaking meat in water 🤦‍♂️. A few years ago I was in the same boat. And I was like, "how could anyone not like goose breast?!?" Then I got my first nasty goose breast lol. Idk why how or what dictates a good breast vs another breast, but I've had bad breasts in the mix over the years. Some say it's what they eat, where they come from, which sub species they are (used to be 18?? I think they've simplified that though). There's definitely a difference though. I think this year I'll be doing more sausage and jerky. 
 

Your dish looks delicious btw. 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Jcol6268

[JR8899]

2 minutes ago, Jcol6268 said:

Soaking meat in water 🤦‍♂️. A few years ago I was in the same boat. And I was like, "how could anyone not like goose breast?!?" Then I got my first nasty goose breast lol. Idk why how or what dictates a good breast vs another breast, but I've had bad breasts in the mix over the years. Some say it's what they eat, where they come from, which sub species they are (used to be 18?? I think they've simplified that though). There's definitely a difference though. I think this year I'll be doing more sausage and jerky. 
 

Your dish looks delicious btw. 

Thank you. Yeah I was very hesitant to brine them because everything else I do with meat handling is usually trying to keep things dry. But then again we brine turkeys, birds all the time so I went for it. Good point I think these were feeding on corn. And I  cleaned one or two that I set aside for the grind pile because something was definitely off.

[mazzgolf]

I brine ALL my waterfowl breasts, including goose, before I do anything else with it. Anywhere between 24 and 48 hours. In the water I put salt, pepper and some herbs/spices.

Goose breast like that is one of the few things my family will actually eat. They can't get over the fact they are eating Bambi .. but goose apparently they are OK with. I think geese are just as cute as deer, but whatever.

[archer36]

Looks great. 

[kanigie]

Sounds and looks good!

I'm looking for a group to hunt geese with in North Jersey. I do not have any decoys but I do have a layout blind! 

[Cousin Brown]

Love goose, one of my favorites.  Only bad ones I had were ones that fish were their main diet....

[smittty]

I brine all poultry. I’ve had my chicken wings in brine since 9am

[ratherbhunting]

About 30 years ago I used to do a lot of goose hunting. I tried goose many ways and never had it come out good, so I gave up goose hunting. I would like to give it another try and make "corned goose".  

 My uncles favorite recipe for goose was "put some bricks on the grill heat them up and put the goose on top of the bricks, check often and when the bricks are soft throw the goose away and eat the bricks".

[vdep217]

3 minutes ago, ratherbhunting said:

About 30 years ago I used to do a lot of goose hunting. I tried goose many ways and never had it come out good, so I gave up goose hunting. I would like to give it another try and make "corned goose".  

 My uncles favorite recipe for goose was "put some bricks on the grill heat them up and put the goose on top of the bricks, check often and when the bricks are soft throw the goose away and eat the bricks".

My guess is you were cooking it well done goose needs to be medium rare as pictured 

[nb6624]

I'll stick to venison loins. 

[mike033089]

I hear from guys waterfowl from the saltwater taste horrible.  

[mazzgolf]

1 hour ago, ratherbhunting said:

About 30 years ago I used to do a lot of goose hunting. I tried goose many ways and never had it come out good, so I gave up goose hunting. I would like to give it another try and make "corned goose".  

 My uncles favorite recipe for goose was "put some bricks on the grill heat them up and put the goose on top of the bricks, check often and when the bricks are soft throw the goose away and eat the bricks".

I know how you feel - because that's exactly how I am with squirrel Tried many ways and never had it come out edible (until someone told me about the braise-squirrel-then-slow-cook-in-spaghetti-sauce method). But never mind that ...

As for goose.... If you want a pretty foolproof recipe, make meatballs with it. Grind it up, add some herbs/spices like you would beef meatballs and try it. They always come out good for me. You could mix a little beef or pork with it, add an egg and breadcrumbs to the ground meat if you'd like. Just find a meatball recipe and try it with ground goose meat. (of course, brine it before hand).

Another recipe if you are willing to spend the time is goose pastrami. Really good - excellent IMO - but takes several days from start to finish. I have the recipe if anyone is interested (in fact, I may have posted it here before; can't remember).

3 minutes ago, mike033089 said:

I hear from guys waterfowl from the saltwater taste horrible.  

Well, for sure there's no helping merganser - but right now I have sea duck jerky in my fridge (specifically, it's scoter) and I'd bet money people would never guess it is sea duck. This, too, requires several days time but... it's sea duck, you'd expect it would need some TLC. You ain't breasting out and cooking sea duck the day you get home and making it good unless you are some kind of professional chef! So you need to take that extra time and effort, but it is worth it. I love this jerky. Smokey and delicious. You can probably do the same thing with bluebill and buffleheads (I don't think I tried it with those species yet). Brine the meat in 2 cups water and 1 Tbsp salt ... brine for 3 days (yes, three) replacing the brine each day. Then marinate in whatever jerky marinade you want for 2 days (yes, 2 days).  Then you can smoke for a couple hours at 200 degrees (if you don't like heavy smoke flavor, you can remove the smoke after an hour and just cook the remaining time).

[Buck154]

Looks good

[Cousin Brown]

8 hours ago, mazzgolf said:

I know how you feel - because that's exactly how I am with squirrel Tried many ways and never had it come out edible (until someone told me about the braise-squirrel-then-slow-cook-in-spaghetti-sauce method). But never mind that ...

As for goose.... If you want a pretty foolproof recipe, make meatballs with it. Grind it up, add some herbs/spices like you would beef meatballs and try it. They always come out good for me. You could mix a little beef or pork with it, add an egg and breadcrumbs to the ground meat if you'd like. Just find a meatball recipe and try it with ground goose meat. (of course, brine it before hand).

Another recipe if you are willing to spend the time is goose pastrami. Really good - excellent IMO - but takes several days from start to finish. I have the recipe if anyone is interested (in fact, I may have posted it here before; can't remember).

Well, for sure there's no helping merganser - but right now I have sea duck jerky in my fridge (specifically, it's scoter) and I'd bet money people would never guess it is sea duck. This, too, requires several days time but... it's sea duck, you'd expect it would need some TLC. You ain't breasting out and cooking sea duck the day you get home and making it good unless you are some kind of professional chef! So you need to take that extra time and effort, but it is worth it. I love this jerky. Smokey and delicious. You can probably do the same thing with bluebill and buffleheads (I don't think I tried it with those species yet). Brine the meat in 2 cups water and 1 Tbsp salt ... brine for 3 days (yes, three) replacing the brine each day. Then marinate in whatever jerky marinade you want for 2 days (yes, 2 days).  Then you can smoke for a couple hours at 200 degrees (if you don't like heavy smoke flavor, you can remove the smoke after an hour and just cook the remaining time).

Bufflehead is great if you use it the day you shot it, if you freeze it ,it goes bad.