To roast a goose (or any cut of meat) properly, you have to sear the
outside, quickly, changing the meat’s surface sugars into crunchy brown
caramel thereby creating a natural bag that seals in the fowl’s juices.
Inside, the goose literally cooks itself. Outside, all you need to
do is baste the skin with fat to prevent it from burning, and if you
are using an open fire, regularly turn the bird so that it is heated
evenly. An oven solves the latter problem, and although Englishmen had
bake ovens in 1621, the Pilgrims didn’t. But a decade or so later they
built them into their Plymouth fireplaces and used them regularly for
roasts as well as breads. So if you don’t have an outdoor grill with
a spit or a fireplace that could be converted into an open hearth, an
oven will do fine. In either case cooking time will be between one and
two hours, or twenty minutes to the pound. Just rub the goose all over
with animal fat (bacon drippings, chicken or goose fat, or butter) and
sear close to an open fire or at 450 degrees in an oven. When the skin
is brown (after about twenty minutes), lower the heat by roasting
your goose farther from the open fire or turning down the oven to 325
degrees. Baste regularly with the goose fat that escapes. When the
legs move easily in their sockets, it is done. The result: juicy rare
meat and crispy skin. Carve it roughly and let everyone eat with his
hands, making sure each has a good-sized cloth napkin or dish towel. No
forks—they were instruments of “Italian or French craft and subtlety”
and quite unEnglish.
[Illustration: BOOKE OF DIVERS DEVICES (1597)]