Canada Goose - how to handle after the kill

fhg1893

fhg1893

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So, I took my first Canada goose this past Saturday, and I'm looking for opinions and advice on how to handle the meat after the kill. I'm keen to eat this one, but I'm pretty sure I made a mistake somewhere. It's already plucked, gutted and in the freezer, so really, I'm asking what I should do next time. :D So how about it fellow 'nutters, help a newbie out?

I'm a self-taught totally new hunter, so in my inexperience, excitement and haste I shot this particular goose fully broadside. I'm pretty sure I should have waited for it to come around little closer, and get a nice belly shot. It caught a good chunk of shot, with pellet wounds from the beak to the legs. We even recovered shot from inside the gizzard, so I'm pretty sure we ruptured the intestines. After the shot, I got it into a cooler with ice-packs right away. We wet-plucked and gutted the bird a few hours later, I didn't do any field dressing at all. When we gutted it, there seemed to be a lot of blood in the body cavity once we started getting the organs out. I washed it thoroughly, before getting it into the freezer.

I guess my question is, it my meat ruined?

Should I have done anything differently, if so what?

Thanks for the help in advance!
 
You shouldn't shoot em on the ground! LOL

How close was it when you shot it?

With Steel BB I haven't seen too many birds get filled with shot as you describe.

Anyways, Canada Goose roasted whole will taste like shoe leather!

You should be just breasting them on site, and cutting off the legs if you want to try them.

Basically you just clear the chest area of feathers, and then peel open the skin and carve out the breasts. The fresher they are the easier it is to peel open the skin, and feather them also.

Most people slow cook em in all kinds of sauce to make it taste better!

Cheers
Mark
 
We only eat the breast meat and made stew or jerky from it. They are way to tough if prepared like turkey or chicken imo. The dog gets the rest. I don't think your meat is ruined. Enjoy your bird.
 
mlehtovaara said:
You shouldn't shoot em on the ground! LOL

How close was it when you shot it?

With Steel BB I haven't seen too many birds get filled with shot as you describe.

Anyways, Canada Goose roasted whole will taste like shoe leather!

You should be just breasting them on site, and cutting off the legs if you want to try them.

Basically you just clear the chest area of feathers, and then peel open the skin and carve out the breasts. The fresher they are the easier it is to peel open the skin, and feather them also.

Most people slow cook em in all kinds of sauce to make it taste better!

Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...

I'm guessing it was about, 25-30 yards, and it was in flight. Flying left to right. It was a fairly low angle shot, maybe 15-20 feet off the ground. I'm not very good at judging distances yet. I took up skeet shooting to help get ready for this season. I guess it paid off. :D And in all seriousness, we actually recovered three pellets of steel BB from the carcass, so I guess it was a good shot?

Otherwise, thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated!

kman300 said:
We only eat the brest meat and made stew or jerky from it. They are way to tough if prepared like turkey or chicken imo. The dog gets the rest. I don't think your meat is ruined. Enjoy your bird.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much.
 
I've plucked them, and then stuffed them like a turkey. As long as the skin is still intact it turns out pretty well.
However, it is easier to just breast them (as was said above). Marinade them, and/or wrap them in bacon to roast. Tasty.:D

If you think there's shot in the breasts, chew carefully, but the meat should be OK.
 
fhg1893 said:
So, I took my first Canada goose this past Saturday, and I'm looking for opinions and advice on how to handle the meat after the kill. I'm keen to eat this one, but I'm pretty sure I made a mistake somewhere. It's already plucked, gutted and in the freezer, so really, I'm asking what I should do next time. :D So how about it fellow 'nutters, help a newbie out?

I'm a self-taught totally new hunter, so in my inexperience, excitement and haste I shot this particular goose fully broadside. I'm pretty sure I should have waited for it to come around little closer, and get a nice belly shot. It caught a good chunk of shot, with pellet wounds from the beak to the legs. We even recovered shot from inside the gizzard, so I'm pretty sure we ruptured the intestines. After the shot, I got it into a cooler with ice-packs right away. We wet-plucked and gutted the bird a few hours later, I didn't do any field dressing at all. When we gutted it, there seemed to be a lot of blood in the body cavity once we started getting the organs out. I washed it thoroughly, before getting it into the freezer.

I guess my question is, it my meat ruined?

Should I have done anything differently, if so what?

Thanks for the help in advance!
Click to expand...


The meat should be fine. When its cool, I'll let my geese hang for a few days with the guts in -- a few hours will make no difference and its preferable to having a big opening that can let in contaminants. The insides of birds that have been shot are frequently bloody and you washed it out so again, its fine.

One suggestion for the future is to keep the legs and breasts separate and prepare them separately. The legs are great if they are braised, while the breast is best sliced, pounded and quickly seared on the grill until it is med rare. A whole roast goose is rarely satisfying as its almost impossible to get the meat both tender and juicy and get the legs properly cooked too.

Broadside is preferable to belly shot as you will end up with less chances of shot in the meat. You've done it right so far.
 
Treat the breast like a roast and you'll be fine. Keep it on the medium side.

(Here's a secret, but don't tell anyone else. The legs are the most tender part of a Canada. Bag all the legs together and prepare them separately.)
 
First off hit them where they eat, not where they sheet
They're big tough birds, so with body shots they can often still go pretty far, head shots work best IMHO
Another way that the bird cooks well is in a preassure cooker, goose is very good, it just needs to be cooked right
 
I prefer the legs to the breast. Make sure you soak the breast good for a day or 2 to get all the blood out before you do anything. The meat should look pale instead of purple/red before yo start cooking.
 
Many thanks for the all the suggestions. Good to know I seem to have gotten it right. And not to worry, we haven't wasted anything - we've kept the feathers, the down, the head, the neck, the intestines, the heart, the liver, the gizzard even the feet. Only thing we threw away was what I think was the gall-bladder and bile sack.

And I haven't decided how I'm going to eat 'em yet, so keep the recipes coming I guess! :D I have to separate the breasts and the legs, I can still do that when the time comes.
 
Clean the gizzard and heart and cut them up fine and sautee in butter over med heat for a couple of minutes. Add 1/4 cup red onion (or shallots), salt, pepper, and a little cognac, brandy or red wine and turn the heat down and let the stuff simmer until nearly all of the liquid evaporates. Take the mix out of the pan and add the sliced livers and a bit more butter and cook until they are still pink but not bloody inside. Take the hot mix, the livers and a couple of table spoons of butter and puree in the blender or food processor. Taste and season if needed (salt is your friend). Spread the pate on toasted baguettes and eat with a good red wine or dark beer (micro brew or Belgian preferred).
 
Throw everything in with some sausage for a gumbo.

For dip, I also add some chickpeas from a can on top of everything else ^ said.
 
mlehtovaara said:
You shouldn't shoot em on the ground! LOL

Anyways, Canada Goose roasted whole will taste like shoe leather!

You should be just breasting them on site, and cutting off the legs if you want to try them...

Mark
Click to expand...


DO NOT breast the birds in the field. This is against regs for most locations that I'm familiar with. Breast them at home.
 
I always keep a couple of nice fat birds for the roaster, but I'll usually wait until later in the season when they've been fattened up on grain. I'll pluck them and dip em in a wax pot to get all the down off, and there's less chance of pin feathers later in the fall. The secret to roasting any game bird is low and slow. I'll stuff them with quartered oranges and onions and season the bird inside and out. Make sure you put a liquid in the roaster and cover well. After a couple of hopurs nothing left to do but to enjoy it with your favorite beverage.
 
I like to cut the breasts up and marinate them in a 50/50 mix of soy sauce and Italian salad dressing over night. Wrap them in bacon and bbq them (preferably over real briquettes) until med. rare. Another way is to cut them up like chicken fingers, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and pan fry them until nice and brown. I did two geese and two ducks as describe on the bbq that we shot last weekend and took them to a fish fry. I cut them up for appys and they were gone in no time.
 
Goose options

1)Marinate in brown sugar, soy, and spices overnight. Air dry, then smoke. Drive out plenty of moisture, and slice paper thin.

2)Grind it, brown it, and add sauteed mushroom, onion, and carrot. Make a brown gravy. Lay all this in a bed of phylo pastry, cover it with phylo dotted with butter. Roast at 350 for 1/2 hour or so--until phylo rises and browns.:wave:
 
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