Before the arrival of our goose from D’Artagnan, I had researched classic Christmas goose recipes, pouring over whatever blogs, websites, and YouTube videos I could find on the topic. Visions of a thoroughly Dickensonian Christmas populated my thoughts, as I envisioned quaint side dishes like Yorkshire pudding, duchess potatoes, and mincemeat pies warmly lit by candlelight. My partner, a chef and 30-year veteran of life behind a stove promptly turned my Victorian flights of fancy on their head. Instead, he proposed a Southern Christmas menu that involved smoking the slowly goose over mesquite wood and glazing it with a Kentucky Bourbon and citrus liqueur glaze. I had to admit, his idea sounded tantalizing.
Since I had neither experience in preparing goose or in Southern cuisine, it would be an adventure.
And so, we discussed weaving together ingredients like threads in a tapestry to create a flavorful, harmonious menu. I repurposed my favorite Thanksgiving stuffing to include andouille rather than sweet Italian sausage, and homemade honey and sage skillet cornbread instead of crusty ciabatta. I also added a dash of Grand Marnier and the zest from two oranges to my go-to crème brûlée recipe. The black-eyed peas were soaked the night before, and made appreciably more decadent with the liberal addition of alder wood smoked bacon lardons.
There are some tips I’ll share with you here—it is advisable to cook the cornbread the night before so that it has time to firm up. It’s also advisable to pour a kettle of boiling water over the goose the night before, then pat it dry with paper towels. This step helps with browning and searing—it’s a technique I use for roasting hens, pot roasts, and scallops—in the case of our goose recipe, it helps the marinade to stick to the bird. We also scored our goose to ensure that the flavors of the rub would seep into the breast meat.
Another tip, for those of you who don’t own a smoker, the effect can be replicated by placing soaking the hickory wood chips in water for a few hours, then place in an oven-safe pan filled mid-way to the rim with the water the chips soaked in. Place the pan on the bottom rack of the oven.
As the goose finished roasting, I pondered which wine to serve with it—an Oregon Pinot Noir would certainly play nicely with the layered flavors of our holiday fare, and an aged Cru Beaujolais might make for an equally interesting pairing. In the end, I settled on classic Rioja. The 2005 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 proved to be an excellent match with its soulful undertones of dried orange peel and forest floor, it sang next to the rustic, earthy-smoky flavors of the black-eyed peas and collard greens.
And yes, I still recommend candlelight.
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