Goose with Sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1
  If you bought a frozen goose, keep in mind that it will take at least 12 hours, maybe even 15, to thaw at room temperature. As soon as possible, remove the giblets inside, if there are any. If you plan to use them for something like kaldoun, store them in the fridge. If not, we'll use them for the sauce, so let them thaw next to the goose.
• 2
  Thoroughly dry the goose with kitchen paper towels. If you have the time and space in the fridge, salt the goose well both outside and inside and place it uncovered in the fridge. The skin will dry out, ensuring the crispiest skin. In any case, remember that the goose should be at room temperature when it goes into the oven, which means it should spend about 2-3 hours at room temperature before baking. If you wish, cut off the parson's nose or any long skin from the neck. You can also remove large fat segments from the abdominal cavity. But don't throw anything away (except maybe the parson's nose)!
• 3
  Prepare a cutting board, we'll start a strong sauce under the goose. Place everything you removed from the goose earlier into a pan for further use. As soon as the fat starts to render, add chicken necks (a cheap but effective poultry flavor enhancer), quartered onions, even with the skin, and celery stalk. Do not salt the mixture, there will be enough salt on the goose, and you will season the sauce at the end. Roast until dark in places. Transfer to a large (larger than the goose) roasting pan. Add a little water to cover the bottom, but a column under a centimeter high is enough. Add fresh thyme and another halved apple.
• 4
  Season the goose with caraway seeds, place it directly on the oven rack, with a large roasting pan underneath to catch anything that drips from it. And at the very bottom, on the oven floor, place the red cabbage.
• 5
  Prepare the cabbage as follows, while the goose is resting before baking. In a non-stick pan that can go into the oven, boil a deciliter of red wine with three heaping tablespoons of dark sugar. In a food processor, first pulse two medium peeled red onions cut into quarters and one red apple, also quartered, without the core, into small pieces. Add to the pan, mix. Chop 500 g of red cabbage into large pieces and pulse in two batches again. Always add a shot of apple juice to it, it will mix better. Add to the pan again. Mix, boil for a few minutes, and cover the pan well with sturdy aluminum foil. The cabbage will bake like this the whole time with the goose.
• 6
  Preheat the oven to 120 °C, conventional baking from top and bottom, and place the goose, the pan with the future sauce, and the cabbage inside. Now have at least 5 hours (a small goose around 3 kg), but rather 6 (around 4 kg and more), patience. During this time, you don't have to do anything at all, maybe just check that the fat isn't dripping into the oven space, because then you'd have a smoked apartment and the goose too.

INSTRUCTIONS AFTER LONG BAKING

• 1
  After this time, take the cabbage aside and the goose on the rack out of the oven. Check if the bone from the wing or thigh can be easily rotated and separated from the meat. At this point, you are almost done. In a cup, mix a few tablespoons of dark beer with a tablespoon of liquid honey and brush the entire goose with a pastry brush, this will make the skin especially crispy and brown. Increase the oven temperature to 220 °C. When the oven reaches this temperature, return the goose (still with the pan with the sauce underneath!) to the oven, now it will take about 10-15 minutes, but watch it so it doesn't catch too quickly. When it's perfect, take it out. The goose can rest for half an hour and will still be hot, no worries.
• 2
  At this point, you can focus on the sauce – strain it through a fine sieve, the fat will immediately separate from the juice, and there will be a lot of it! Pour the fat into a jar, you'll use it many times for other cooking. Taste the juice, if it doesn't seem strong enough, reduce it to your liking. If you're satisfied with the taste, it's just a matter of thickening it. You can quickly do this with starch. Pour 15 g into a small jar with a little cold water, close with a lid, and shake. While constantly stirring the sauce in a saucepan or small pot with a whisk, pour in the starch mixture. Boil for just a few minutes. Then taste, add salt if necessary, or assess if the sauce needs another 5 g of starch. If so, repeat the process with the jar and a little water. Never pour it directly into the hot sauce, it would just create big lumps. Transfer the finished sauce to a sauceboat.
• 3
  Finish the cabbage by returning the pan to the stove, adding balsamic glaze and cranberries. Salt if necessary, you can add pepper.