When St. Martin of Tours heard he was due to be created bishop he hid in a goose-pen, wanting to avoid the appointment due to his humility. The startled geese honked and gabbled and gave him away. This is the legendary origin of the custom of eating roast goose on or around St Martin’s Day, in many parts of central Europe.
I was invited to a roast goose (Martinigansl) meal in the Austrian village of Großweikersdorf. We started with goose soup, a broth made from goose-meat, with carrots, peas and onions and flavoured with herbs and spices, served with dumplings, which are a staple of Austrian cuisine. There are many sorts of dumplings made from different ingredients. Ours were made from flour and breadcrumbs. The taste was superb.
Our 4.5-kilo goose was stuffed with the traditional mixture of bread (five diced, stale semmeln or small white buns), lightly fried onions and chopped chicken-liver, held together with three beaten eggs, and flavoured with salt, parsley and nutmeg, with a little milk to obtain the right consistency. The stuffing ingredients are mixed together and left to stand for about 30 minutes. Two small apples also went into the goose – whole.
Roasting time is calculated at an hour per kilo in a moderate oven, and the goose is basted frequently with its own juices. Goose meat is like duck, dark and full of flavour and ours was done to perfection – tender and succulent. A tangy cranberry sauce provided an enjoyable contrast to the richness of the meat. The bird was served up with some very traditional shredded red cabbage, with a little shredded apple stirred in. The apple had been marinated for two hours in lemon juice flavoured with caraway. There was a Kardinalschnitte for dessert, a divine mixture of sponge-cake, cream and fruit that truly reflects the Austrian passion for sweets. Even a savoury-favouring man like me could not fail to be enthusiastic, though I could only manage a small portion.