Liquid Gold

As I sit  here reading “Eating Animals”, the house smells deliciously of roasted goose.  I haven’t quite lost my appetite for meat yet, but the book is working on my carnivore tendencies.

By the time the goose comes out of the oven, it will be just a shadow of its former self, having shed all that fat that geese are so famous for.

Goose schmaltz is a prized possession and I now have about 4 cups of it (from just one goose) to use (in small quantities) to flavor mashed potatoes and other foods.  Much of the fat comes out in the first stage of cooking, where the goose, having been sufficiently pricked, is steamed on the top of the stove in a pan with a tight-fitting lid.  But I never imagined there would be so much fat!

My husband (who now loves to chop after taking “Knife Skills”) and I prepped this morning for the rest of the meal, so the afternoon has been rather leisurely.  We will soon be throwing together braised kale, boiled root vegetables, and oyster dressing.  A pumpkin pie sits ready and waiting on the counter.  My crust confidence is building.

We’ll share dinner with our son and good neighborhood friends.  Meanwhile, there’s still lots of snow everywhere I look outside.  The official snow measurer and his trusty companion ventured out onto the deck this morning.