From Fable to Plate, A Closer Look At Goose
Before turkey became the bird of choice for Christmas dinner, there was goose. For years goose dominated the table, particularly in northern Europe where it was not only viewed as a delicious dish, but a valued farm commodity. Geese provided feathers for down, quills with which to write and feather arrows, and grease that could be used to make poultices, waterproof leather, and protect animal ears, hooves, and paws from the cold.
Aside from being an animal of such great utility, geese were oftentimes lauded by spiritual leaders for their tendency to pair-bond and breed for life, thus proving that monogamy was a perfectly natural convention. In actuality, geese do break off into breeding pairs in the wild (the bond tends to be rather strong and can last for years), but in domestic flocks larger than twenty, they frequently tend to mate randomly with multiple partners.
With such great social and economic applicability, it's no wonder that geese became a mainstay of myth, fable, and legend in so many cultures. It was Aesop's goose that laid the proverbial golden egg and so warned about the perils of greed. When Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty who was born of the "sea-foam," first came ashore, she was greeted by a goose-drawn carriage of Charites (also known as Graces). According to the Roman historian, Livy, a flock of geese saved Rome from the Gauls around 390BC when they were disturbed by a night attack and proceeded to squawk about the temple of Juno on the Capitoline Hill. Mother Goose is one of the most widely recognized tellers of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Countless children have played a round of Duck Duck Goose at some point in their lives. And a goose quill was used to sign the Declaration of Independence.
While there is no shortage of goose references in the collective cultural conscious, goose meat can be hard to come by, particularly in America. Alan Zuschlag, a sustainable goose producer at Touchstone Farm in Amissville, Virginia, explains that, ironically, the dearth in available goose meat is due primarily to those factors that made goose so popular and intriguing to begin with.
The feathers may come in handy, but they make geese notoriously difficult to process. As Zuschlag notes, "They [geese] are a problem as far as dressing and cleaning, mainly because they have so much down feathers. It's much harder to pluck a goose. It's very labor intensive." Zuschlag estimates that it takes half the amount of time (if not less) to pluck a turkey than it does to dress and clean a goose.
Moreover, once the plucking is done, turkeys offer much more meat than the average goose. "You'd probably be disappointed," says Zuschlag "because [with goose] you'd be hard-pressed to serve more than four people." Goose meat doesn't lend itself well to traditional leftovers, either. Fuller bodied, fattier, and more intensely flavored than turkey or chicken, goose meat doesn't agree with sandwiches and soups. But the goose fat itself can be used for many things, especially cooking and baking, which according to Zuschlag "is really quite good." The leftover fat is particularly popular in northern Europe as an after dinner treat that's spread across a piece of bread and lightly salted.
Goose breeding patterns, which, as mentioned previously, were once regarded as a natural sign of virtue, have also done much to restrict the fowl's commercial applicability. While wild geese are monogamous, domestic breeds can be bred with multiple mates (one gander to 2-4 mates) if introduced to each other at an early age. As ganders get older, they may choose to breed with only one or two favored females out of the group which cuts down productivity. They are most productive only in their second and third years of life. Introducing new mates is a slow process and may take weeks or months before birds will accept each other, if they will at all.
Artificially incubated goose eggs have the lowest hatchability of all poultry breeds. The geese need to be together for at least six weeks before one can expect fertile eggs. Geese can be raised completely on land, but some geese (especially the heavier breeds) prefer to mate in the water if given a choice, since they are, by nature, waterfowl.
These factors, along with a tendency to flock (congregate and walk about in large groups) and what Zuschlag identifies as "a low tolerance for being bored," render geese largely incompatible with large-scale, industrial production. Still though, an international goose market does exist, although it is primarily based on down. Most of the world's down comes from China and a handful of European nations, while a combination of Europe, China, and Canada exports nearly all of the goose meat.
As they're unsuited for factory farms, it follows that most geese in Canada and America are raised in a sustainable manner on smaller-scale farms where they often graze on open pasture. (An important exception is when geese are subjected to the cruel practice of force-feeding during the production of fois gras – see last year's goose article for more.) For Zuschlag, the pasture element is one the best parts about raising geese. "I like having geese around because they're fun to watch and they feed themselves. They're great foragers out on pasture, eating grass, weeds, and bugs."
Zuschlag raises American Buff geese, a calm and docile heritage breed that's the largest of the medium weight class of geese. He chose American Buffs because he wanted to produce "a breed that was rarer that I could help keep alive, but that could also work well for Christmas."
American Buffs are currently registered as "critical" by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), meaning they have "fewer than 200 annual registrations in the United States and estimated fewer than 2,000 global population." Most goose meat comes from Embden or an Embden cross (usually crossed with Toulouse), Toulouse, Chinese, and African breeds. ALBC currently lists four other breeds (Pilgrim, Pomeranian, Roman, and Shetland) as critically endangered.
Most of Zuschlag's customers are Europeans, diplomats especially, living and working around the Washington, D.C. area. They grew up on Christmas goose and enjoy the opportunity of visiting a small farm in the countryside. The few Americans that do order a Christmas goose from Touchstone Farm usually do so out of novelty, rather than custom.
Zuschlag recommends that those interested in purchasing a goose for Christmas should contact their local farmer as soon as possible, as most goose producers only raise a small flock of birds. Zuschlag usually raises no more than twenty geese a year, and there's always a waiting list.
Customers should not be discouraged by the limited availability, though. As Zuschlag notes, if one is looking to have a truly traditional Christmas, goose is the way to go.
"I think it's a great holiday meal. Something special. A little out of
the ordinary. A Christmas goose and plum pudding is
the way to do an old fashioned Christmas."
Those hoping to grace their dinner table with a goose this holiday season can
visit the Eat
Well Guide to find a local, sustainable goose producer.
There
is currently no separate meat listing for goose in the
guide, so just be sure to visit the advanced
search page and search for farmers using "goose"
or "geese" as a keyword. If there are no local
producers in the results, consult Heritage
Foods USA, a company devoted to making wholesome,
delicious and sustainably produced heritage foods available
to all Americans. Heritage Foods USA sources all of
its products from small farmers across the U.S. Do note
that as the company works with a limited number of suppliers,
certain products, such as goose, may not always be available.
- By John Kerkering
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