When I think of Sam’s cooking, the one dish that comes immediately to mind is the memorable roast goose that he prepared one Christmas. I can admit that I have never and probably at this stage am never going to prepare a roast goose. However, if I should get the notion to do so, I would turn to one of my favorite French cookbooks that I acquired back in the 1970s during my French cooking phase. While Julia Child had recipes that were complex, incredibly detailed, and required many steps, French Cooking for Everyone by Alfred Guérot took a more Gallic approach to directions and assumed that the cook knew something about the kitchen. The recipe for roast goose is a scant paragraph. There is no ingredients list or methodology parsed out in small, easy-to-follow sentences—rather, basic instructions on how to cook the bird. This is my version.
Season, truss, and place the goose on a rack in a shallow roasting pan in a 325°F oven. Roast until the leg joints move freely. While the goose is cooking, periodically spoon off the fat as it accumulates, reserving it for later uses. It will take an oven-ready eight-pound goose about four hours to roast.