Cooking a goose....

Without sounding big headed I cook a pretty mean roast dinner but for Xmas day i'm cooking a goose and i've never cooked one before.

Can anyone offer any tips or advice please??

My thoughts were to use a roasting rack so I can drain the fat off and to surround the goose with onion, garlic, rosemary, sage, celery, carrots and lemon and maybe a bit of stock of some description.

Hmm think I'd refer to Jamie Oliver or the BBC cooking websites for help on that - I know they can be quite oily so a rack is probably a good idea - enjoy!

A rack is a must as you will get a couple of mugfuls of fat off it, which you can keep in the fridge and use for roasties afterwards. You must keep pricking the skin all over to let the fat out whilst it is cooking. Goose is a really good choice as it knocks turkey into a cocked hat for flavour. Sadly I have been outvoted and we are having turkey which is just a vehicle for gravy as far as I'm concerned!!

Jamie Oliver has a good recipe for goose on his website. He doesn't use a rack, but puts the bird on top of veg instead.

P.S. can't find the darn thing, but try this: http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes...11-27_p_1.html

Do you remember if the vegetables used as a disposable flavour enhancing "rack", or eaten afterwards as part of the meal?

Not eaten - used for flavouring the gravy. Include the giblets under the bird too.

Skim the fat from the tray, add stock and mash the vegetables and giblets into the stock - strain through a sieve and voila - gravy!

What a brilliant idea! I shall try that next time.

ETA: In fact I will try it with our turkey this Christmas too. Cheers!!

It's what we're doing with our turkey!

We love goose, always prick the skin and place on a rack and enjoy

Thanks to all for the suggestions and advice - all have been noted and tomorrow evening has been set aside for "research night"!!

Am liking the idea of using the Jamie idea of veg as a base to keep the goose out of the fat!