Smoked Goose Breast with a Citrus Glaze

BBQ Silly Season is upon us.  These are the cooks where we leave behind traditional meats, rubs, and sauces and try new recipes that are different and exciting.  Our first cook did not disappoint.  The Oldest had an outstanding first day of goose season and we were lucky enough to procure some beautiful looking breasts.  I brined the breasts, seasoned, then glazed with a recipe I found on line.  Let us head out to the smoker and see how this goose was cooked.

After some Google searches, I found a recipe for a glaze that looked pretty good.  You can find it here at allrecipes.com.  I didn't any honey on hand, so I substituted hot pepper jelly in place of the honey.  I changed up the method by brining the goose and using the marinade as a glaze.  After trimming up the breasts, removing as much silver skin as possible, and inspecting for any tooth cracking buckshot, I whipped up a batch of my poultry brine and let the breasts go for a six hour swim.  The brining process will remove most of the blood from the meat, infuse some flavor, and generally remove that gamy taste that you can experience when eating goose.  After removing the breasts from the brine, I rinsed them with cold water, patted dry, and applied a thin coat of olive oil.  Then, I seasoned two of the breasts with Oakridge BBQ Game Bird and Chicken rub.  The other two breasts were simply seasoned with pink salt and fresh cracked pepper.

I sit the breasts on the counter to come to room temperature, then I lit my smoker and brought to a temperature of 300 F. Then, I placed some pecan splits in the ash pan for smoke flavor.  Pecan is a nice mild smoking wood that pairs nicely with any kind of poultry or game bird.  The breasts were placed on hotter side of cooking racks.  After allowing to brown up for about 15 minutes, I applied my first application of glaze to all sides of the breast.

After allowing the first application of glaze to set for 30 minutes, I glazed the breasts a second time and allowed the goose to cook for 15 more minutes.  Total cook time was 60 minutes.

After removing the breasts from the smoker, I allowed them to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Twenty-four hours from field to table.  You can't get much fresher than that.  We were very happy with how this goose turned out on the smoker.  No gamy flavor and tender, juicy meat.  The glaze would even work well for standard chicken on the grill.

Hunting season is young.  Stay tuned as hopefully we will have a few more opportunities to fire up the smoker with some local game.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

More Adventures with Goose, Part Three: German Smoked Goose Breast

During my fun in the kitchen with the goose The Oldest shot during hunting season, I wanted to do a few things a bit outside the box.  Perhaps something cured and smoked.  So, after some searching, I found a recipe for German Smoked Goose on my new favorite cooking website, Hunter Angler Gardner Cook.  The recipe calls for goose breasts with the skin and fat still on the butchered breasts.  Unfortunately, the breasts I received were skinless and free of fat.  But, the recipe looked good and while the taste might not be the same, I figured it would be close.  So, on to the kitchen.

This recipe calls for juniper, pepper, salt (both regular and curing), and optional scotch.  I followed the recipe exactly except for the use of scotch.  I just do not keep scotch around the house.  Maybe I need to rethink that strategy.  Anyway, I digress.

The process calls for a three to four day cure (I cured for four days), followed by one night in the refrigerator to dry, then seven hours of smoking.  Recommended woods for smoking were beech, alder, or cherry.  Since I have a supply of alder, that is the wood I used.  Here is a photo journey of the process.

The breasts, cleaned, trimmed and ready to go.

The cure, all ready for application.

Cure applied and ready for the four day cure.

After the day one flip.

After the four days of cure.  Notice how all of the sugar and salt have dissolved and the liquid has been pulled out of the breast during the cure process.

After an overnight in the refrigerator and after trussing.  No comments on the trussing.  This is the first time have have tied up any piece of meat.  Ever!

After the seven hours of smoking.

Then, the final product after two days in the refrigerator to let the smoke flavors age and mellow.

Not too bad if I say so myself.  This recipe is pretty good.  The texture reminded me a little bit like South African biltong.  The juniper was present, but not overpowering.  The breast were a bit salty for my taste, but a more thorough rinse after the cure will take care of that issue.  Maybe even soaking the cured breasts for an hour or so will cut the saltiness further.  As for the scotch, I will try that step in the future as well.

I have put in a request for some goose breast in the future with the skin and fat attached.  I think that preparing the recipe as intended will add a whole new layer of flavors to something that was good to start.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill