Smoked Canada Goose Sausage
Dec 21st, 2007 | By Hank | Category: Charcuterie, Wild Game | Comments | 5 Comments |
I had an iffy hunting trip last weekend with an area guide service (I’m giving them another chance before I rag on them), and wound up getting an already-dressed Canada goose as a consolation prize. Much to my chagrin, when I got it home, not only did it not have its legs or wings, most of the skin was torn off! And of course the giblets were all gone. I was livid. Not a good end to the day.
What to do? Well, I decided to make lemonade out of lemons, and made sausages out of the wreckage of this Canada goose. So I boned out the breasts and got what meat I could scrape off the carcass and weighed it: 2 pounds. Not bad, actually. I began to feel better. Fortunately I had a half-pound of frozen pork fatback lying around (Don’t ask) to mix in. You really can’t do a good sausage without at least 20 percent fat, as I found out by making 5 pounds of antelope peperone from Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie book a few months ago. It is OK, not great. And very dry. Next time I’m throwing in some fatback! But I digress.
My initial purpose for this sausage was to stuff the neck skin of a Canada goose my friend Tom shot, and this turned out fantastic! (I’ll return to that topic in another post later) But I had lots left over, so I stuffed the rest into hog casings. These are what you see in the picture above. I let the sausages hang in the cool garage for a few hours to dry out, then I got my smoker fired up. I fed it with wet almond wood until it was good and smoky, then hung the sausages to smoke for three hours. Afterwards, I shocked the sausages in an ice water bath to stop the cooking, then dried them off to store.
Don’t they look nice? They sure tasted good. Here is the recipe.
They do indeed look fantastic!
I feel for you on the goose hunt. Makes me realize how spoiled I am.
Thanks for doing this. I’ll be giving the duck version a go sometime early in the new year.
Thanks for the inspiration. I’ve bagged two Canadian geese this year but can’t figure out how to clean them to get the most. I must confess that I’ve only breasted them out. Do you have step by step directions? Cut here, pull all these off, now cut hear? I would love to do more with my birds but can’t find enough info about cleaning them.
I am planning to do a detailed step-by-step this weekend…if I get some ducks! Short version: Use a thin-bladed knive (this is what your boning knife is for) or a fillet knife for this. Your general thinking is to “free the meat from the bones.”
Do you know how to pluck a duck or goose? We use wax and scalding water. Believe it or not, this is what “The Joy of Cooking” recommends – if you have an old version of the book. Basically you drop a few blocks of paraffin wax (at most stores in canning section) into hot but not boiling water, let it melt, then swish the bird in it after you have rough-plucked it. Dunk waxed bird into a bucket of cold water to set the wax, then pick away slowly. Makes ‘em look pretty!
Just found your site, I like it! Will try the smoked sausage this season. I have always used the legs in a stew, but will try them your way, just so much work for so little meat. I too am spoiled, in Massachusetts we hunt the golf course, always our limit of 10# birds so we only breasted them out. Up here in “Down East” me. I have a blind 60′ from my back door & call-em in, from the bay, these too are 9-10# birds, & breasted, the rest go to the eagles! I don’t think its worth it to pluck & roast. An avid duck/goose hunter from the S.S. of Ma. passed his recipe to me & its a hit with everyone I have passed it to. If you would like it e-mail me. RAY.
Easy way to clean geese nicely is to take to Amish neighbors and give them a buck per goose to clean and pluck and let them keep the feathers for pillows.