As some of you know, snow goose meat has a very gamy, swampy flavour. I have tried to cook it many different ways in the past, and have never succeeded in creating anything worth eating. Essentially, I have given up on it. But on my recent trip to Saskatchewan I was offered a bunch of snow goose breasts, so how could I refuse? Decided to incorporate the meat into a sausage and not being able to find a credible recipe, I created my own. And, surprise, surprise! It worked! Using 40% goose and 60% pork I made a spicy, good tasting sausage with no muddy or gamy taste at all. I only made a 3kg. test batch but will definitely be making more using the same recipe. Next time I will do a 50/50 blend. The goose breasts were trimmed of what little fat there was, inspected for buck shot, cut into smaller pieces and then soaked in salt water for 24 hours, then washed and soaked in water for another 24 hours. The spices I used are those often used in game recipes and the fermento was used because it's essentially made from buttermilk powder, and many hunters use buttermilk to soak game meat to make it more palatable. The amount of salt was reduced since the goose meat was already brined.
Recipe for 3kg. meat
1200g snow goose breasts
1800g 60/40 pork
8g cure #1
45g salt
15 black pepper
1tsp ground fennel
1tsp coriander
1 ground juniper berries
1tb (9g) hot paprika
1tb (9g) hot chili powder
2tbs corn syrup solids
30g fermento
1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup water
Grind meat with 12mm plate, then regrind with 6mm. Mix all ingredients and refrigerate for two days before smoking. I used hickory.
