why brine a goose (or duck)?

[Jeff Davidson]

We found a high quality, 9 lb natural goose on sale for half price after Christmas. Looked through the various posts here and saw a lot of people recommend brining. Given the fat content of a goose, it didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

Decided to just prick the skin, cut slits under the thigh, stuffed with a couple of oranges, ginger and garlic. Set the wsm to 250 and four hours later, had a great meal.

Ran into a friend who has a smoker and he immediately asked me about the brine...so I guess my question is why brine a high-fat content bird?

 

[Steve Petrone]

Jeff if you predictably get what you are looking for w/o brine then don't brine. I usually think of brine as a tool to primarily add moisture and to secondarily add flavor.

 

[K Kruger]

For ducks and geese brining is typically used primarily as a seasoning tool, i.e., getting either salt alone (from a straight brine) or various flavors (from a flavor brine) into the meat.

Brining for moisture can be useful though if you've removed the skin and fat, especially when dealing with breasts. Typically, I cut out the leg quarters and freeze them; when I have several I make confit. I remove skin and fat from the rest of the carcass. The breastbone, back and wings I use for stock. The fat and skin I combine and cook slowly to render the fat for storage; the skin I make into cracklings for salads or bread spreads. The now skinless, boneless, mostly fatless breasts I brine, rub and grill.