Three ingredients. Heavenly potatoes. Potatoes, goose fat and good sea salt. Don’t let your friends in on the secret, but they will be wondering how you did your potatoes and if you don’t tell them, it can be your “special” secret… I am not sure what it is about goose fat, the natural richness, or its higher tolerance for temperatures, but the potatoes come out noticeably better when fried in goose fat. You can either parboil the potatoes before frying them, or if you want the full effect, just deep fry them in goose fat until nice and crisp on the outer edges and sprinkle with good sea salt…
We served these potatoes with the roast beef last week and while they are a bit luxurious, goose fat is pricier than vegetable oil, you can re-use the leftover fat for once more batch of potatoes to spread out the cost… Goose fat is one of those ingredients I want to have in stock in the larder rather than buying it for that one or two really special holiday or birthday meals per year!
33 Responses
I totally agree with you goose fat is the magic wand that made the unassuming potatoes tasty with a big help from Maldon sea salt which is one of the best you can get your hands and it is indeed luxurious ingredient duo goose fat and Maldon sea salt.. The proper execution in combining these three ingredients gave the potatoes the rhapsody of the evening. I am thinking if you borrow a page from making duck confit to potato confit slowly simmering the potatoes in goose fat. I imagine the potaotoes will be out of this world. I believe if you added a goose fat in your au just or gravy for the roast beef it will be another flavor profile. The magic power of goose fat!
Does goose fat go rancid after being stored in the pantry for a year?
There was a place in Toronto that served fabulous steak frite. Never mind the capricious quality of their steak but the fries, the fries merited a major detour and always made me wonder what deadly fat they must fry them in to make ‘em fragrant, light and so uncommonly addictive. I had a nagging suspicion it was horse fat just as Jeffrey Steingarten chronicled in his single-minded pursuit of perfect fries in The man who ate everything. But my query to the kitchen returned that it was a combination of vegetable oil and goose fat. Until that moment I assumed packing medium for confit d’oie was the best role it could hope to play in French cuisine although in Cantonese patisserie, goose fat is the star as the preferred shortening.
Goose fat gets better if aged. It has a tang that adds yet another layer of flavor to any dish using the fat.
Growing up we had a “cool cellar” (AKA “root cellar”) where we stored fruit, vegetables, smoked sausages … and lard & goose fat kept in stoneware containers. Now I keep it in tupperware at the back of the fridge.
That sounds absolutely yummy and artery-clogging. Would I still eat it? Definitely!
Living in a half-European/half-American household, I am used to cooking duck or goose. I always save the fat from either bird, and use it for cooking many things–it most definitely adds a special depth of flavour to foods that are sauteed/fried/roasted with it. A simple treat is using goose or duck fat (instead of butter) on some good bread, sprinkling that with herbs (crushed rosemary on its own or perhaps with some thyme is good) or even just some coarse salt, and then running this under the broiler to crisp. Absolutely delicious, and “newbies” to goose fat are usually converted instantly.
An easy way to make your own duck fat for cooking–take a couple of duck breasts, score the skin deeply through the fat layer beneath in a cross-hatched pattern (do not cut the meat), place breasts skin side down in a cold skillet, then heat to medium low. The fat will render as the skin browns slowly, and you should have little or no meat juices in the fat. When the skin is nicely browned, remove the breasts from the pan, pour off the fat into a glass container and let cool, return the breasts to the pan and turn up the heat to medium to finish cooking (and for heaven’s sake don’t cook duck beyond medium unless you want to waste it…I prefer it quite rare.) This will give you enough fat for a saute or two.
As for health issues, it’s no worse than butter or other animal fat. As with everything else, moderation is the key.
BTW anyone who has the chance to eat truly wild goose should do so–it is a completely different (and delicious) meat from that of the domestic goose.
Hmmmmmmm…..sounds delicious!!!! Now, where can we get our hands on some goose fat here in Cebu.
MM, which deli do you buy goose fat in the Metro? I love potatoes and this sounds so intriguing.
Goose fat is occasionally available at Terry’s….Graisse d’oie
Where do I get maldon sea salt? Is it available in Santis?
I have a full mason jar of rendered goose fat sitting in the fridge, from a recent roast… I also have some duck fat too! Absolutely beautiful to use.
hmmm–this proves true the saying, “never too old to learn something new”..a new quest: goose fat!
yummy. i love to try this, need to check for goose fat here in Abu Dhabi.
MM, where can i buy goose fat and sea salt in manila? i’m from pampanga and i usually buy my deli supplies from bretto’s but they are outrageously priced. another fat-related question, is that fat used in breadtalk’s flossbread?i have been obsessed with that bread and i even made pork floss from scratch, which i think i did successfully.
Havent tried that gooze fat yet? i usually fry potatoes in olive oil or sunflower but gooze fat nevah! i guess i need to try it too,,,where the hell im going to search for that fat now????
Good God!! Where to get goose fat?
i googled and yahooed but ‘mail order’ was all i got. whole foods? need info for the northeast, US..thanks, and enjoy the rest of your holiday!!
Goose, duck, pork, beef all of their fat contributes something so tasteful to the food they come in contact with and when used in moderation is good. Even McDonald’s once said that they use one of these fats in their french fries and of course somebody complained when they learned this so I don’t know if they still use it. Well, it made a difference in the taste compared to other french fries.
There was an article online about the health benefits of duck fat (I will guess that goose fat is just as healthy); has less saturated fat than butter so eat up!
Terry’s and Santi’s are the best source of goose fat in Metro Manila; Rustan’s sometimes has sea salt, but you can get local sea salt in Salcedo and Legaspi market.
I’m in luck, I have at hand your “secret” ingredients!! I will try this out. I didn’t realize i could fry in the fat. I just used to toss the potatoes in the fat and put in in the oven.
i love duck fat french fries! they have it here in chicago at hotdoug’s every weekend. it was featured on anthony bourdain’s no reservation chicago episode.
My recipe is the same but with duck fat and Maldon sea salt… pretty much anything in duck fat with Maldon is a good thing! Would love to try goose fat, but it’s just not as easily available (duck fat is ever-present where I work).
Those looking for imported sea salt, may I suggest sea salt from Pangasinan instead? Just follow this link to Le Sanctuaire and you’ll see local salts in a different light.
https://www.le-sanctuaire.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ls&Product_Code=SSTWhitePangasinan&Category_Code=Salts
I wonder if our local ducks in the Philippines have enough fat to be rendered? European or N American ducks and geese tend to be bigger and fatter. I do love duck fat for frying potatoes, and cholesterol counts be d*****!. Thanks MM for the reminder!
Chicken and goose fat are also known as schmaltz ( which means rendered fat). Since chicken skin is readily available, maybe for the sake of your readers, MM, you could do a taste test and see if there really is a difference worth hunting the goose fat down. Nutritionally they should not be too far apart so if taste is also comparable then chicken fat can be used as a substitute. Chicken cracklings are the bomb, IMO.
Goose fat is the secret of most chef !!! Heard this from one of the show at Asian Food Channel.
You can buy it in Hong Kong at Oliver’s. Just ask the staff for it.
Many years ago, I roasted wild goose for Noche Buena (in the UK) and I remember that there was so much fat that I had to empty the baking tray before cooking was finished to prevent an overflow. There should be places in the Philippines which can raise geese commercially – I remember after the war my cousins had pet geese in San Juan.
hi MM,
pardon my ignorance, but where can i get Maldon locally? thanks!
wow! very tempting….where can i buy goose fat here in manila?…
hil, Terry’s selection on Pasong Tamo, Segundo Piso at Podium Mall, etc. sometimes carry goose or duck fat. attybubba, sorry, I haven’t seen Maldon in local shops, maybe once at Terry’s but not regularly…
I bought my stash of Maldon in, of all places, SM Makati! At first I thought I can’t buy any there, but it turns out, you can find it in the ground level, outside the main grocery area. If you can see that station where they sell ground spices and nuts (beside the stall that sells flowers), there is whole bunch of artisan salts and other sea salts like Maldon crammed in the bottom shelf of the spice rack (or whatever you call those little transparent boxes that hold the spices), out of eye level.
My boyfriend spotted those salts while we were standing in line to pay for some flowers. He said something like “Ano yung pink na yan na nasa bote, ba’t ang mahal?” After squatting and scouring the shelf, I found that there were lavender salts, and those oh so cute pink salts and Maldon. He was super adamant that I do not splurge on something as mundane as salt but I just can’t explain…I kept telling him, “Basta it’s good. It’s MALDON. (widen eyes for effect)”
Emsy, yes, that stall belongs to Flavors n Spices, the folks with the shop in Market!Market and yes they sell some specialty salts. :)