Choosing goose meat for yourself or your family, it is very important not to buy expired or poor-quality products. It's one thing when you acquire a bird in a specialized store, where meat meets all the relevant quality standards, and what if you need to go after the goose carcass to the nearest market? In order to avoid all the undesirable consequences of the acquisition, you need to know how to choose the right goose in the market and how to distinguish fresh poultry meat from poor quality.
General requirements
A goose is a fatty bird, which has a high proportion of bones in relation to dark meat. This suggests that even the largest goose carcass can be eaten no more than six or eight people, the proportions in this case will not be expected to be large. The goose has fat, which is located under the skin. Just like in the process of frying ducks, goose fat is heated, soaking all the meat, because of what it becomes juicy and fragrant. Goose can be selected, both in fresh and frozen form. Since the goose is a large bird, often, both in the market and in the store you can find separately the wings, breasts, hips of the bird. Choosing the right goose in the market should be able to distinguish the old bird from the young one. The young goose has paws of yellow color, they are soft, there is a small amount of fluff on the legs. Old birds have dry and rigid membranes on their paws.
It will be correct if the goose has a fat and fleshy breast with a flexible sternum, a waxy skin of light shade and a yellowish presence of fat in the abdominal cavity. Most often, frozen poultry carcasses are on sale. Do not be afraid to choose them, because these carcasses, as a rule, are of high quality. This is due to the fact that this bird can tolerate freezing well.
It is very important that the bird is not old and much larger (maximum 2-4 kg), otherwise it will take a lot of time to prepare it.
Learning to choose the right bird carcass
Before you buy a goose, carefully examine the appearance of the carcass, feel the sides. Thanks to this, we will be able to find out how much the meat bird is in front of us. Meat, which is free to move around the throat - fresh. But this way you can check only a fresh bird, and not frozen.
When choosing a goose, make sure that it does not have ice with a pinkish tint, as this indicates that the carcass was to be frozen not once. This can contribute to the development of bacteria.
Note that the goose meat does not have a sticky feel to the touch and does not slip. Pay special attention to the beak, mouth, goose skin and its fat. Fresh goose must have a glossy, elastic and dry beak slightly yellowish hue, mouth slightly pinkish shade, which has a light shine, a clean surface of the skin, the correct color of carcass, subcutaneous fat and fleshy bacon.
Keep in mind, the more the market owner praises his goods and "beats himself in the chest," echoing that his goose is the freshest, so you should have more desire to test his words.
So, remember the following features of fresh and quality meat. If the carcass of the bird causes a lot of doubts about your freshness, be sure to smell the carcass. As a rule, no unpleasant odor should come from the fresh carcass of a bird.
By the way, you can determine the youth of the bird in several other ways. First, it is necessary to pay attention to the feet of the goose. Young carcass is characterized by the presence of a soft, slightly yellowish hue of the feet, on which the small scales are located. But the old goose can betray itself by rough, bright yellow and scaly paws. Secondly, the age of the acquired delicacy can be recognized by the tip of the breast bone. The young bird has not yet ossified a breast bone. In other words, cartilaginous, which bends without much effort.
And finally you want to add, buying a goose at the market, carefully make sure that the carcass is not a windy, which is very typical for the market. If you have any doubts about its quality and freshness when choosing a goose, you better give up buying!