These recipes have been taken from The River Cottage Year Book also available in softback version.

• Giblet-stuffed neck of goose with winter leaves and spicy chutney
• Confit of goose legs (serve with split pea and peppercorn purée)
• Roast goose (serve with roast roots, apple sauce and all the trimmings)

These three dishes can be served in succession on Christmas day or for a more thrifty approach, the confit of legs can be preserved for months, covered with goose fat.

To prepare the goose properly takes a little time, and if you plan to eat all three dishes together you should begin at least three days before the meal. But it’s a gleeful task in which several willing hands can all do their bit. The final, huge advantage is that relatively little labour is required on the day itself, leaving the head chef plenty of time to enjoy the meal, not to mention the plaudits of family and friends.

A few general instructions are given below to help you plan this as a single celebration meal.

Preparing the goose for the three dishes

Ideally you should begin preparing your goose three to five days before your planned meal (i. e. on the 21st or 22nd December for Christmas).  First remove the neck using the point of a very sharp knife, cut around the skin at the base of the neck, incorporating a good-sized flap of skin all round from the part where the neck joins the body. Once you have released the skin, you can cut through the neck muscle and bones with a cleaver or poultry shears – again, as near the base as possible.

Then cut off the legs – not just the drumstick but the thigh bone too, and the lovely scallop of meat that attaches to it. To do this, cut through the skin where the leg joins the body, then push the whole leg away from the breast. This will expose the ball and socket joint where the thighbone joins the body of the goose. Don’t be afraid to push hard enough to tear the ligaments around this joint. Then use the knife to cut through the tough sinews. With the thigh, cut away that scallop of meat we mentioned by following the natural contours of the muscle meat that attaches to the thigh, being careful not to impinge on the lower part of the breast muscle on the bird.

Next remove the excess fat (there should be plenty of it) from around the neck end and inside the cavity of the bird. This fat is essential for cooking both the confit and the stuffed neck.

You are now left with a legless carcass of goose, which is more or less oven-ready. Cover it with a cloth and return it to the fridge, or a very cool larder, until you want to roast it.

The fat must now be rendered: put all the fat, and fatty pieces, in an ovenproof dish and into a moderate oven (180°C/Gas Mark 4). After half an hour, strain all the melted fat through a sieve into a bowl. Return the dish to the oven and repeat the straining every 15 minutes or so, until all the fat has been rendered. Leave the rendered fat to cool, and keep it in the bowl until you need it.  Now you’re ready to tackle the three recipes, as follows.

Confit of goose legs

Confit means ‘preserved’ in French, as in the word confiture, meaning jam. In the goose-producing regions of France, such as Gascony and Cahors, preserving part of the annual harvest used to be a way of extending the shelf life of the goose through the winter months. In that respect, confit is the poultry equivalent of bacon and hams.

The initial preparation (i. e. the salting of the legs) should be done at least 48 hours before you plan to serve the dish – ideally on the day you pick up the goose. The first cooking can be done the day before your meal (i. e. on Christmas Eve), and the final crisping up just before serving.

Crush together into a paste 25g flaky salt, a good teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, the stripped, chopped leaves from several sprigs of thyme, a couple of shredded bay leaves and 3 large cloves of garlic. Rub this mixture thoroughly into the skin and meat of your goose legs. Leave for 48 hours in a tray or dish in the fridge, giving the legs another salty massage after 24 hours. Then scrape off all these seasonings and reserve.

Heat a film of goose fat or olive oil in a heavy pan over a moderate heat and brown the legs thoroughly in it, skin-side down first and then all over. Put the legs into an ovenproof dish in which they fit as snugly as possible, with the seasoning scrapings and enough rendered goose fat or lard to cover, or almost cover, the meat. Then cook for about 2 hours in a slow oven (140°C/Gas Mark 1), until the meat is nearly falling from the bone. If the legs are not quite covered by the fat, turn them carefully 2 or 3 times during cooking.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. To preserve the confit legs, put them into a large Kilner jar or similar, or into a plastic tub with a lid, and pour over enough warm liquid goose fat or lard to cover completely and seal the meat from the air. Leave until they are cold and the fat is set hard, then cover with the lid. Thus preserved, the confit will keep for several months in a cool larder or even longer in the fridge. Or simply smeared in fat and wrapped in clingfilm, it will still keep for a good couple of weeks in the fridge.

When the confit is to be served, remove the legs from the container and scrape off most (not all) of the fat – rendered and filtered, it can be used again. Place the legs skin-side down in a roasting tin. Put into a hot oven (230°C/Gas Mark 8) for 5 minutes, drain off the melted fat, then return to the oven for 5–10 minutes, skin-side up, until crisp and piping hot.

Traditionally a confit like this is served on the bone, one leg per (very hungry) person, accompanied by beans or lentils.

Giblet-stuffed neck of goose

The neck can be stuffed and cooked any time on the days preceding Christmas, you can even cook it with the confit if you like. Hugh usually serves the neck cold, as the first of the three courses, but recently he also tried it hot, served alongside the confit as one of only two courses, and he liked it a lot. So take your pick.

Peel off the skin carefully from the neck, using the tip of a knife to release any reluctant sinews. Remove and discard the windpipe. Remove any excess fat inside the skin of the neck and put it with the rest of the fat to be rendered. Place the neck skin in a small dish, cover with a couple of tablespoons of brandy (such as Somerset Cider Brandy) or rum and leave to marinate until you are ready to stuff it. This helps to soften the skin, so that it will stretch when stuffed and not split when cooked.

Chop the skinless neck into a few sections and put in a pan with the heart and gizzard, a few stock vegetables and a bay leaf. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 11/2–2 hours. Strain the stock and put aside – you’ll use it to make the gravy (see below) for the roast goose. Discard the vegetables, and leave the heart, gizzard and neck pieces to cool.

Pick off as much meat as you can from the neck. Trim the coarse edges off the gizzard. Roughly chop the neck meat, gizzard and heart and put in a mixing bowl. Finely chop the fresh liver of the bird and add to the bowl. Add 125g good sausage meat, a nugget of rendered goose fat or butter, a few sprigs of fresh thyme and/or 6–10 fresh sage leaves, both finely chopped, a few scrapes of nutmeg, 1 tablespoon of the brandy or rum marinade and another of port. Season well with salt and black pepper. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly with your hands, until well combined.

Now it’s time to stuff the neck skin. There are two effective ways to seal each end of it. The easiest is simply to tie each end tightly with several turns of butcher’s string and a few reef knots. Tie the narrow head end first, then stuff in as much of the forcemeat as you can (be gentle but firm and the skin should stretch to accommodate a surprising amount of stuffing; don’t overstretch it though, or it may split when cooking). Then tie the other end in the same way.

The more skilful way, which allows you to get a bit more stuffing in the neck, is to use a darning needle and extra-strong cotton to sew up each end. We can’t really give precise guidance on the stitching technique but we think it’s called blanket stitch!

The stuffed neck is gently simmered in hot goose fat – topped up with lard if necessary. This can be done in a large pan on the hob, over a low heat, or in a deep roasting tin in a slow oven (about 120°C/Gas Mark 1/2). Either way, the sausage should be pricked in several places with a needle to ensure it doesn’t burst. Then lower it carefully into the preheated fat so it is covered, or almost covered. If it’s not completely covered you should turn it every 10 minutes or so.

You can, if it suits you, cook the stuffed neck in the same dish as the confit during its initial slow cooking (having kept the neck, stuffed but uncooked, in the fridge for a day or two if you’re waiting for the confit to cure). It won’t take as long as the confit, though – about 11/4 hours should do it.

The stuffed neck can now be served hot, with the confit if you like or, once cooked, remove it from the fat, leave to cool completely, wrap in foil and refrigerate. It can be kept for a couple of days and, like a pâté or terrine, the flavour will improve.

Then, to serve it up cold as a course on its own, remove from the fridge and foil about an hour before dinner. Slice thickly and serve each guest a couple of slices, on a plate dressed with a few winter salad leaves, with a blob of spicy, fruity chutney on the side.

Roast goose with apple sauce and gravy

The first two courses show a distinctly French approach to the extraneous parts of the goose. Hugh likes to give the main body of the bird a more traditionally British treatment.

Prick the surface of the breast all over with a sharp fork and rub well with a little rough salt and pepper. It can be served ever so slightly pink, which is best achieved by roasting fast in a hot oven (220°C/Gas Mark 7) for about 50 minutes. Let it rest for 20 minutes before carving. 

Here’s how to fix the accompaniments:

The gravy

The basis for your gravy is the stock in which the giblets and neck of the goose were cooked. After the initial cooking, this stock should be strained and refrigerated, so the fat, which will set on the top, can then easily be removed. Then warm up the stock and strain it through a cloth or muslin into a clean, heavy-based pan. Add one third as much red wine as there is stock and bring to the boil to reduce. The stronger the reduction, the less you need. I like to think in terms of about a tablespoon per person, and so reduce it until I have about 200ml. Do not season with salt or pepper until after the reduction is finished or it will become unpalatably salty as it reduces.  This will make an intensely flavoured but quite thin jus to serve with the goose. If you like a thicker gravy, whisk a little beurre manié (soft butter mixed to a paste with a little plain flour) into the boiling juices until you get the thickness you require.

Both versions can be supplemented at the last moment by the juices strained from the roasting tin, deglazed with another splash of red wine.  Skim off as much fat as you can and whisk the gravy well to incorporate the little that inevitably gets through.

The apple sauce

Peel, core and slice 3 large Bramleys and cook them with just a tablespoon of water, a small knob of butter and 1 tablespoon caster sugar until they disintegrate. Keep simmering gently for 10 minutes or so until you have a nice, thick apple purée. Sweeten to taste with a little more caster sugar if you like (we recommend you keep it tart to cut the fat of the goose).

Serving up the roast

We like to carve the roast at (or beside) the table, in the traditional manner. With two courses already despatched, a couple of thin slices of breast per person, a good drizzle of the very rich gravy, and a generous tablespoon of the apple sauce, along with your own selection of vegetables should keep everybody happy.