Goose fat

[Tim Hall]

I cooked a splendid goose for Christmas lunch. V nice it was. And we ended up with a load of goose fat in the bottom of the roasting tray, as geese are fat old birds.  Brilliant I thought, a year's supply of goose fat, potato roasting for the use of, so I decanted it into various tins and jars.

Except it won't solidify, even after I put it in the fridge. I'm guessing I've got some kind of impurities in there, but how to get rid of them?

[tiermat]

I start by passing it through a sieve, this gets rid of the bigger bits.

Then line the sieve with 2 layers of kitchen roll (has to be good kitchen roll, not the cheap stuff from the open all hours down the road).

Pass fat through the sieve again, allowing all the fat to drain through.

You will have a load of smaller bits in the paper that is left, and it will be sodden.  Fold the corners over on the paper to make a diamond, making sure there are no gaps on top, then press down on it to get the dregs of the fat out.

Repeat as necessary.

[Basil]

Any goose fat that I have bought has been in a jar, and fairly liquid.

[Tim Hall]

Any goose fat that I have bought has been in a jar, and fairly liquid.

The stuff I bought was white and solidish - used a spoon to get it out of the jar, but softer than room temperature butter even though the fat was straight out of the fridge.

[a lower gear]

We have a goose every Thanksgiving. The fat varies in consistency and seperates into layers and invariably stays liquid at room temperatures (is your fridge not overly cold, maybe?). Have never sieved or strained it and found that in the fridge in a glass bowl covered with clingfilm it lasts at least 9 months before starting to taste odd, and that frozen it lasts for ever (i.e. until we use it to make roast veggies - usually within 18 months). The two main layers are a lower one resembing a pinkish gelatine and an uppe rone of white to translucent fat. The lower one contains meat juices and needs to be used first but keeps some months under its sealing laye rof fat in the fridge, as noted above. As well as using the fat to make roast veggies, I also use it to make gravy if a roast is short of fat and meat juices.

Save all the bones in the fridge and boil them up with veg to make stock. A goose makes around a gallon and a half. Can freeze the bones if you don't want to make stock now. Freeze the stock until needed. It makes an excellent base for soups.