Having drawn and singed the goose, wipe out the inside with a cloth,
and sprinkle in some pepper and salt. Make a stuffing of four good
sized onions minced fine, and half their quantity of green sage leaves
minced also, a large tea-cupful of grated bread-crumbs, a piece of
butter the size of a walnut, and the beaten yolks of two eggs, with a
little pepper and salt. Mix the whole together, and incorporate them
well. Put the stuffing into the goose, and press it in hard; but do not
entirely fill up the cavity, as the mixture will swell in cooking. Tie
the goose securely round with a greased or wetted string; and paper
the breast to prevent it from scorching. Fasten the goose on the spit
at both ends. The fire must be brisk and well kept up. It will require
from two hours to two and a half to roast. Baste it at first with a
little salt and water, and then with its own gravy. Take off the paper
when the goose is about half done, and dredge it with a little flour
towards the last. Having parboiled the liver and heart, chop them and
put them into the gravy, which must be skimmed well and thickened with
a little browned flour.
Send apple-sauce to table with the goose; also mashed potatoes.
A goose may be stuffed entirely with potatoes, boiled and mashed with
milk, butter, pepper and salt.
You may make a gravy of the giblets, that is the neck, pinions, liver,
heart and gizzard, stewed in a little water, thickened with butter
rolled in flour, and seasoned with pepper and salt. Add a glass of
red wine. Before you send it to table, take out all but the liver and
heart; mince them and leave them in the gravy. This gravy is by many
preferred to that which comes from the goose in roasting. It is well to
have both.
If a goose is old it is useless to cook it, as when hard and tough it
cannot be eaten.