Goose pastrami is what I do with most of my Canada goose breasts. It is an easy project that makes the most out of these often-tough slabs of meat.
Why geese? Well, Canada and snow geese are very close to grass-fed beef in flavor (they eat the same thing), they have large, easy-to-work-with breasts, and they do have a tendency to be tough, which means that any way you can cook them that lets you slice the breasts thinly is a good thing.
Pastrami, in case you’ve never had it, is a cured meat from Eastern Europe or Turkey — remember the Ottomans ran Eastern Europe for a while — that’s normally beef or mutton. Although here’s an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: “Among Jewish Romanians, goose breasts were commonly made into pastrami because they were inexpensive.”
So there ya go. This is traditional!
To make pastrami, you dry cure (sometimes brine) the meat for a few days, dry it a bit, coat it in the characteristic black pepper and coriander and then smoke it. Sliced thin on a sandwich, it’s God’s gift. Good pastrami at a Jewish deli is something you must eat at least once before you die.
If you have any goose breasts in your freezer, go for it. A pastrami on rye with good mustard, a slice of cheese and maybe some sauerkraut, and you got yourself some awesome there!
Once you make your pastrami, it will need to be eaten within a week or two, or you’ll need to vacuum seal and freeze it.\
Goose Pastrami
Ingredients
- 2 skinless Canada goose (or domestic goose breasts
- Kosher salt see recipe notes
- 3 grams Instacure No. 1, good for up to 3 pounds of goose
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/4 teaspoon caraway seed
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed juniper optional
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper plus 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup brandy red wine, vinegar or water
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
Instructions
- Weigh your goose breasts. For every pound of goose, you'll need 10 grams of kosher salt, which is about a tablespoon. It's OK if you are a little off on this measurement. Mix the salt, curing salt, sugar as well as the thyme, celery seed, caraway, juniper and the teaspoon of black pepper and grind them all together in a spice grinder. Pack the goose breasts with this mixture, massaging it into the meat. Put the goose into a closed container in the fridge for 24 to 72 hours.
- When you are ready, rinse off the goose and pat it dry. It's fine if you have a little bit of the cure stuck to the meat, but you don't want too much. Put the goose breasts on a rack in the fridge and let them dry uncovered for a day.
- Dip the goose into the brandy -- or really any other liquid you want -- and then coat thoroughly in the remaining black pepper and ground coriander seed. I like to grind this myself so the texture is a little coarse, a little fine.
- Smoke the goose breasts until the interior hits 140°F, which takes me about 3 hours.
- Let the goose pastrami cool and eat as lunch meat, or on crackers or whatever.
Just tried this with snow goose. Did 6 breasts to have almost 3 pounds. It would definitely work better with Canadians. With so much surface area on smaller breasts it was hard to get a good coat of cure on. And it took way more coriander and pepper to dust them before the smoker.
This turned out absolutely amazing <3
Thanks for a great recipe!
If you slice it too thick and the result is tough to chew, try giving the meat and other classic Reuben ingredients a whirl in a food processor. Then grill a Rueben “salad” sandwich.
Lights out!
Would this recipe work with duck breast?
Kevin: Maybe a big domestic duck breast, but most wild duck breasts are just too small for it.
I’ve been wanting to make this for a long time, but despite several attempts had never shot a goose until last week. As my dog was completing the retrieve I was already getting excited to try this recipe, and it did not disappoint. I brought some to a potluck social with non-hunters and everyone really enjoyed it. Highly recommended!
I do have a question for Hank about the dry cure process. This was my first time doing a dry cure. Usually with wet cures you want to get a very specific concentration of the instacure in your brine to keep the nitrates within the safe range (not too high or low). I was a bit surprised that this recipe uses a fixed amount of instacure for “up to three pounds” of meat. I would think you should vary the amount based on the weight of the meat. How does that work?
Is it possible to make this recipe with the skin on?
Frank: Yes. Just proceed as normal.
This is my favorite recipe for skinny late season Canada Geese.
I made this and my wife left it out over night. The pastrami was sliced thin and vac sealed. Do you think it would be eatable after that time? Does the cure and smoke help in preserving the meat in any way that it would have a chance of being protected? It turned out so good I would hate to have to throw it out.
Jacob: I don’t know. I’d be leery of it.
How long can it stay vac sealed and unrefrigerated? I’d like to mail some to a buddy cross country.
Sal: Um, not long. If you did, I’d freeze it first then send it overnight.
If finishing in the oven, what temp and for how long would be good to get it to temp? Thanks.
Jimbo: I’d go low, like 225F, and I am not sure on time. Use a probe thermometer to get it to about 140F internal.
Hank, I notice the only ingredient that varies depending on weight is the kosher salt. My question is if you have less meat, say 1 or 2 lbs instead of 3, would you keep all the ingredient amounts the same for the cure rub and only adjust the kosher salt based on the weight? I am thinking that as long as the ratio is right with the other ingredients, besides the kosher salt, that it would be ok still for a smaller amount of meat since whatever is left after the rub of the cure wont be making it into the meat and just be discarded? Really my concern is with how much instacure to use with smaller amounts and hoping that as long as I mix up to this ratio I wont have to actually adjust the amount I’m putting in the rub, just sometimes I will not use all the rub if I have less than 3 lbs and sometimes i will if i have the 3lbs.
Jim: Yes, if you keep all the ratios the same you can scale this up or down at will.
Curious if I can cold smoke it say for 4 hours, then put it in the oven and bring it up to temp? Thanks
Robert: That would work.
Has anyone frozen a breast after curing and smoking? How does the meat turn out after being frozen for ~6 mo? too dry? Looking forward to trying this. Thanks
Brett: Yes, it works very well.
Heyo – would this recipe also work well for wild duck breast? I made a load of this last season with goose and it turned out great, but I’ve got freezer full of duck from this past season, so would like to try something for that as well. TIA.
KB: Yes, but they will be very small.
While not recommended, I did this with specks and snows since that is what I had at the end of the season. I think I might increase the spices in the curing process a little next year. I smoked this to 145 over hickory (3 hr at 160-170). Mighty tastey!
I also did this to the legs and plan to shred those into a reuben casserole of sorts.
This is one of my go to uses for Canada goose breasts. I have been making it every year for about 5-6 years now. This year I did something a little different. I kept the skin on and stuffed 2 breast chunks together, meat side in, skin side out, into sausage netting. I smoked it to about 136 internal, rested, then sliced it as thin as I could with a large fillet knife. Then I tossed all the sliced pastrami in the black pepper/coriander mix. There was enough moisture there that it adhered really well. I really loved it this way. Vac sealed into 1 lb packages for my next fishing trip. Can’t wait!!
Like many hunters, I find it more enjoyable to shoot Canada geese than eat them. Or I use to, before I found this recipe. Every single person I have served this to has said that it was the best pastrami they’ve ever had. Not best goose pastrami. Best pastrami. And I’ve mostly served this to folks that shutter at the thought of eating wild game. Can’t thank you enough for this one Hank.
Recipe notes: before I could find juniper berries, I replaced them in the recipe with good gin. The gin gave it a little hint of juniper, but I prefer using the berries (which are easy to procure online). I also highly recommend toasting the caraway, juniper berries, and peppercorns before grinding (not the caraway) and including. Finally, Hank, it would be great to have metric weight versions of all your recipes.
Just finished my first batch of this yesterday. I have tried a couple of other goose pastrami recipes and they were very good. But this is my favorite so far. I modified it slightly so I could use an equilibrium brine and have more control over the salt content so I can’t speak as to how salty the original recipe is. But the flavor profile is spot on.
The Juniper might be optional, but it is highly recommended. It adds a great little flavor that most people are unaccustomed to, but end up enjoying.
Using the equilibrium brine I was able to get great results on both skin-off and skin-on breasts. And I actually prefer the skin on version. Especially with my late season geese that had a nice layer of fat.
Thanks for the recipe Mr. Shaw!
I’ve made this recipe twice, and it’s been too salty both times. The second time, I cut the soak time back to ten hours. I would next cut the amount of salt in the brine by 50% and replace with sugar.
Made this recipe with a couple of fresh Canada Goose breasts right out of the field and I am SO delighted! I didn’t have coriander seed so substituted cumin which worked perfectly.
Smoked about 3 hours with cherry, finished bringing it to 145 internal in the oven set to 200.
Wish I could post a photo, the colour is amazing!
I need to get some Swiss cheese and 1000 Island dressing, then it will be Reubens on homemade sourdough bread.
Thanks for a great recipe!
With regard to the comment about using Tenderquick, my understanding it has a much lower concentration of nitrates than the instacure #1, hence the longer curing time.
But back too the basic recipe. I have a batch of snow goose breasts (our group killed 347 of those filthy animals yesterday) I want to make into pastrami and am curious how to scale the recipe. Is the basic recipe above good for 3 lbs. of goose and if, say I have 9 lbs of goose, could I triple it (keeping with the 1.25 grams of cure per lb. ratio)?
Mark: Yep, that’s right.
Hank: I just wanted to thank you, not just for this recipe, but for all you do to promote your love of culinary excellence with the waterfowl and upland birds I hunt. Your book, “Duck, Duck, Goose” is amazing, and I can’t wait to receive my pre-order of your latest work, “Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail.” I have made this pastrami recipe twice now with Canadas and think it is perfect. I use bourbon! Thanks again! – James M.
I don’t see the amount of kosher salt in the recipe…. also it seems like pink curing salt is the same as Instacure #1… is that correct?
Bob: It’s in there. Read the recipe. And yes, pink curing salt is generally, but not always, the same thing as Instacure No. 1.
Hank,
Love this recipe! On my 3rd round. How long can I keep in fridge?
Nicholas: I’d say about a week.
Thanks for the reply Hank! I weighed the breasts and used your recommendation of 22 grams Kosher salt per pound of meat. By my calculations, however, that is more like 4.8% salt (22 grams divided by 454 grams/lb.). Maybe I’ll just try less salt.
HI Hank, I tried the recipe this weekend. Cured 4 whole breast pieces for about 36 hours. Rinsed, dried for 24 hours, then smoked for about 4 hours. The pastrami is good, but very, very salty. Any suggestions for how to reduce the saltiness? Shorter curing time?
Mark
Mark: Did you go by weight or volume? That can be a problem if your salt is cut smaller than mine. Also, it depends on the size of the goose breasts. Very hard to pin down, but a good ratio is 2% salt by weight.
Took the breasts out of Two Geese that I had killed the weekend before christmas and prepared them for Pastrami. The family loved it!!! Even my mother in law ate it!
Hank,
If a man doesn’t have a smoker (a crime, I know), what do you suggest for temp and time in the oven for this recipe? I assume you’d want to still keep it low and slow.
Thanks! Love your recipes!
Do you think this recipe would work with pheasant? Looking for something different with the upland gamey bird. Would have to adjust due to the smaller breasts of the pheasant.
Mark: I would not do it with pheasant.
Outstanding! I was a confit addict now I’m a pastrami addict. Not salty, easy to prepare and it freezes well. Thanks Hank.
Hey Hank – I’ve seen a few other recipes for goose pastrami. Some of them call for brining the goose using tenderquick and a sugar/salt mixture anywhere from 10-14 days. That seems excessively long to me. What are your thoughts on the tenderquick and length of brining?
Kent: That’s insane. Way too long. A Canada goose breast, even skin on, won’t take more than 48 hours to fully cure.
My brother and I made this to break out from our grinding sausage routine. It was fantastic and relatively easy (even for idiots on the first try). We smoked the breasts longer at 120 degrees for ten hours and it really made a fantastic addition to the charcuterie plate A great learning experience. Thanks Hank.
Can’t wait to try this. Thanks
This stuff is nothing short of amazing
We take a lot of Canada geese every season and this is our go to recipe.
Best. Pastrami. Ever.
Just a couple of remarks to help those who go to make this. I’m in the smoking phase of my second batch.
First, sourcing whole corriander seeds was troublesome. I could not find any in the spice sections of any of my local grocers. I have hard the bulk food section at Whole Foods has them. I bought a ship load sized bag online.
Second, I use the chopper,grinder, mincer attachment for my stick blender to grind the peppercorns and corriander seeds. I find putting the peppercorns in first and doing a demi-grind on them and then adding the corriander seeds makes for a more uniform consistence of the resulting mixture. The peppercorns are harder and don’t grind at the same rate as the corriander seeds.
First time and it was better than expected, great addition to my game dinner menu
Awesome Hank! Here is a link to the great online calculator I use.
http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html
I have been tweaking this recipe for years now and for me the Ideal salt level is 1.75% and 156 ppm nitrite. Just remember the weight you enter on the first line is the weight of your meat AND water combined.
Hope that helps.
I could add to your list of HAGCactivities, fun of making exquisite furniture. from exotic local ewoods. try it. in the meanime, i heartily enjoy your blog stories, and truly wish i could join you on your hog hunt.
an old grouse hunter from Hebe, PA
Chad, I always do this recipe skin on. The skin adds a beautiful hit of fatty flavor. We are lucky enough to have some pretty fat canadas around where I live.
Hank, You are my Guru! Rock on! Question – Have you ever tried equilibrium brining? Once I discovered it I never used any other method. Id love to see a blog post from you about it.
Kurtis: I need to do more of it. And when I get it down, I will post on EQ curing. It is excellent!
I would like to thank you for this recipe, It’s the best thing to do to a goose I’ve tried, and I’ve tried a lot.
So far I’ve processed about 50 geese and gave a lot away to the guys I hunt with.Everyone thats tried it has been happy with the results. I fiddle with the spices , depending on what I have on hand, and how I think it would improve the final result, but it’s all good. Big thumbs up!
Would my domesticated duck breasts be big enough? I’ve got too many drakes and it’s time for a cull. They’re pekin/rouen crosses, about 9 months of age.
Becky: Sure, they’ll work.
This is pretty much the only recipe I use for goose breasts. Using cherry to smoke has resulted in exactly what I wanted it to taste like while leaving the rest of the recipe as is.
I’ve turned a number of people who “hate” goose!
I’m really looking forward to trying this one!
Ever tried skin-on Canada goose breasts for this? I had a bunch of geese to process and the breasts were so pristine and fat, I couldn’t bring myself to skin them….
Thanks Hank. While my coffee grinder would work as a spice grinder, I’m not sure how the coffee would taste the next morning. I plan to chop up the peppercorns and coriander seeds using the mini-chopper attachment that came with the stick blender. It’s what I used to blend up the cure. Wonderful caraway seed aroma emanated when I took the lid off. Also, does it make any sense to try and toast the peppercorns and coriander seeds in a hot skillet, to release the oils, before grinding?
Hank: I have 6 lbs of this in the refrigerator curing and am looking ahead to the rub phase. I’d like the get the balance between the pepper and coriander correct. The recipe says to use 1 T ground coriander but in the comments you indicate you grind your own. Do I start with 1T whole seeds and go from there, or is it 1T after they have been ground. Also, would it be beneficial to use whole peppercorns and grind them as well? Looking forward to the finished product on Monday.
Mark: It’s all up to you. Those measurements are very loose. I do grind my own spices for this, though, so yes, it helps to have a spice grinder. Some people like more coriander, some more pepper. Your call. I go 50-50.
Do I have to let them dry for a day or can it just be for a few hours with maybe a fan on them?
Tom: A few hours with a fan works, too.
Just made this for the 2nd time. Favorite wild game recipe ever! This time was a 10lb batch and I must’ve had the salt measurement off. Much more salty flavor. Anyone have any recommendations on how to remedy this? Best I can come up with is to slice ultra thin like prosciutto and eat with something sweet like cantaloupe.
One thing that made a significant difference was slicing the breast the long way, instead of across. The muscle fibers run several different ways but this direction gave me the most cross fiber cut. The result was a much more tender texture. Great stuff.
I’ve made two batches of this with Canada geese we harvested in Virginia this year. I have finally found a way to prepare these birds that actually tastes GREAT! Need to pull them from a smoker just a bit sooner (this batch went to 155 deg as I was not paying proper attention) but the flavor is just terrific. (Smoke was Pitmaster’s Choice pellets from Amazen products – smoked for 4 hours at 190 deg in a MES30) Thank you for sharing this great recipe!
I just finished my first batch. Pastrami sandwiches are on tomorrows lunch menu!
Next time I will adjust a couple of things. I’ll marinate for 24 hours instead of 30, I won’t make the final rub as heavy(fortunately, it’s easy to remove the excess when it’s done), and I’ll probably use different wood. I used oak and pecan this time. Next batch I’m thinking hickory and cherry, or apple to give it a slightly sweeter smoke.
This is a great way to use goose.
I was leaning towards apple originally. I smoke all my turkeys with cherry and it NEVER disappoints. I live in NORCAL, so access to all kinds of orchards is pretty easy; I was thinking of visiting a few different ones to get a variety of fresh cut woods (pecan, peach, orange, apple) that I could air dry and have ready whenever I needed.
Hank, ONly qustion I have is what wood do you recommend for the smoke? I dont want something really heavy (mesquite) to overpower the flavor. SHould I stick to hardwoods (maybe white oak), or go with a milder wood (alder)
Jon: Oak is nice. I normally use fruit woods.
Hey Hank.
I think my last comment didn’t go through. bad internet?
I went through the recipe and the meat looks great, plus it was super simple! I was however really salty. I think maybe I need to get more exact with the instacure? I also had that fluid buildup that David got, and was curious if this could be to blamed?
Any other things to be sure of to make sure it doesn’t end up super salty again?
Thanks
-Kedrik
I wish I could include a picture here because my first attempt at Canada goose pastrami (or goostrami as a friend called it) was picture perfect!! Wasn’t sure what my target temp for the smoker was. Ultimately took just under 5hrs @160F to acheive an internal temp of 145F. Let it cool a bit and sliced into it. The outer layer of meat was a little tough to get through but the inside was surprisingly tender and moist still. And to my surprise, completely pink admittedly I was concerned I’d have a grey layer in there because I doubted the process (never used a dry brine/cure before). I will most definitely be making this again (and again and again). Thanks for the recipe!!
Andrea
I cure my own Canadian bacon too from boneless loins using Mortons tender quick and usually prick them all over with a skewer. One tablespoon /pound of meat, and the same amount of brown sugar.This allows the cure to get to the middle. You could try that with the goose breasts too, the holes from the skewers don’t show.
Mike: I and every other serious maker of cured meats hates Morton’s tenderquick. It’s a crappy product that removes any control you have over the process. It is a proprietary blend of salt, nitrite and sugar that makes it tough to work with unless you use the company’s own recipes. That is the reason they do this, BTW. I highly recommend that anyone remotely interested in good charcuterie buy real curing salt and use their own ratios of salt and sugar. Oh, and skewering the meat does nothing. The cure is salt based and it enters the meat via osmosis, not mechanically. Piercing the meat just damages it. Bottom line: Try my version. It will actually taste like real pastrami.
I made about 15 pounds of this a few weeks ago and I couldn’t believe how good the meat turned out. I think my measurements were off slightly as it was a little too peppery but it was still great. I’ve given a bit away and gotten tons of compliments on it so far.
We served mini pastrami sandwiches as one of the dishes at a waterfowl dinner and it was a hit. Also made some smoked goose sausage, goose jerky, and sauteed duck breasts; most recipes came from here or your books. Thanks for everything!
My Canadian breasts are all rubbed and closed up in the fridge. Should I pour the liquid that collects out every so often or keep it in?
Thanks
David: Pour it off.
Tried these with a big gander’s breast this week. Just finished up last night and my wife said that they might have been the best thing I have ever cooked (I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or hurt :D). I don’t have the bag and seal gear so skipped to the bottom on the cooking… I also went with some Calvados, as I don’t have any Brandy around. I have a Traeger, and they went four hours at 180 degrees, and still weren’t hitting the 165 safe mark. I pulled them off the smoker, put them in an open foil “boat” and drizzled them with another table spoon of Calvados. I “floated” them in a pan with about a 1/2 inch of water and then sealed the whole thing with foil. Oven at 325 for 90 minutes, and they hit 167 degree, board cooled them, and Wow. Served with Dijon, gherkins, and hard grain crackers. Very happy – and I really appreciate the recipe. Thanks for your labors!
Paul
Thank you for posting this recipe! It is, indeed, fantastic. Cold up here in Canada and I tried to sneak another smoking session in but I couldn’t get it up to temperature. After 3 hours of smoking, I pulled it out and used my oven to finish it (I admit, I don’t know if this was a good call). Thermometers were all askew as well. The perfect storm. Never-the-less, the Pastrami turned out and is quite tasty, although I’d hazard to guess it would be better when I can finish it in the smoker.
In reards to the Tenderquick, I have seen folks on other forums using this, but I’m not sure if it’s a 1:1 ratio. The Nitricure product that I use was a success.
Tyler: That’s actually a great idea, finishing it in the oven. I’ve done that many times to good effect.
I don’t have any instacure on hand – could I substitute Morton Tenderquick?
If not, where should I look for this instacure?
Honestly I’ve never used tenderquick. Can anyone out there help Chad?
Hank, I gave this recipe a try this weekend with four crane breasts. Wow. So good.
Hank,
Finishing up these goose breasts. My Masterbult electric, with 10 breasts in it, running at 200, got the breasts up to 145 in an hour! I turned the temp down. Suggestions to keep the smoke going for 3 hrs?
Smoking times and temps are all voodoo, when it all boils down to it. In your case, drop the temperate of the smoker. The Instacure you put in the goose breasts will keep away any bad bugs you can sometimes get when cooking at lower temps.
Hank,
Rick Cope (another member of the YHC) and I both made goose pastrami last weekend using your recipe. WOW! The pastrami turned out amazing! Rick used it to make reuben’s and reported that his entire family loved them! I’ve been eating pastrami sandwiches all week. The ladies that I work with at the bank tried the pastrami and asked for more. This may be one of the easiest and successful uses of skinned canada goose breasts. I can envision mounds of pastrami that will result from the 3 to 5 man limits we will shoot this upcoming season!
Thanks again,
Todd Baier
Hank, those look great! I’ve made pastrami but used brine instead of dry rub. My problem is that the cure never seems to reach the center of the meat. The middle is gray while the rest is that lovely cured pink. I’ll try your method next time.