Perfect recipe for cooking goose

Roast goose with lemon and apple

Serves 6 Ingredients

2 large cooking apples, roughly chopped 4.6kg goose Salt and freshly ground black pepper Handful of lemon thyme sprigs

Method

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/gas mark 4. Remove the giblets from the goose and wash the bird thoroughly under the cold tap before patting dry. Pull out any fat from its cavity and cut off the parson's nose. Prick it all over with a fork and rub it with salt.

Mix the chopped apple with the thyme, season, and stuff the mixture into the goose cavity. Place the goose breast-side up on a rack in a large roasting tray.

Roast it in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes, then remove it from the oven and carefully pour off the fat. Loosely cover the bird with foil and return it to the oven.

Roast the bird for a further two hours, then pour off the excess fat again. Remove the foil from the goose and return it to the oven for the remaining 15 minutes. Check the goose is cooked by piercing its thigh with a skewer. If the juices run clear, your goose is cooked.

Remove it from the oven and allow to it rest before carving it and serving.

Mark Price is managing director of Waitrose (ask_mark@waitrose.co.uk)

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