Louisiana Goose Hunting: A Chef’s Perspective on Wild Game Cooking

It was a while lying on my back and looking up the sight of a 12-gauge shotgun at a sky blackened with birds that I realized I was not a hunter. Even though I came from a long line of hunters, I couldn’t hit the side of a barn. My destiny was to cook game, not hunt it.

My father was a phenomenal hunter and as comfortable in the swamp as he was on our front porch. As a young man, he made a living trapping and hunting. My birth certificate shows my father’s occupation as trapper. Our larder was filled with ingredients from the swamp floor, and our back porch décor was stretched hides drying in the sun.

“LOUISIANA’S ABUNDANT WETLANDS, MARSHES, AND BAYOUS MAKE THIS A WATERFOWL PARADISE YEAR-ROUND.”

My culinary education in preparing wild delicacies came from the “Escoffiers” of Cajun Country. At Uncle Paul Zeringue’s camp on Cabanocey Plantation, I learned to make duck and andouille gumbo; at Ivy Bye’s camp on Burton Lane, I learned to cook goose breast sauce piquante; at Guy Caire’s camp, I watched as swamp meals were prepared for governors, senators, and state representatives.

Louisiana’s abundant wetlands, marshes, and bayous make this a waterfowl paradise year-round. What elevates the state from being a great place to hunt to being Sportsman’s Paradise is its location at the southern end of the Mississippi Flyway, the path hundreds of bird species take to their southern wintering grounds each year.

The Native Americans who first roamed this area knew about the seasonal arrival of ducks and geese, naming one spot in present-day St. James Parish Cabanosse, “mallards’ roost.” One can imagine how the abundance of waterfowl delighted the newly arrived Acadians, discovering that Louisiana was where the birds they hunted in Nova Scotia in the spring and summer disappeared for the winter.

It seems waterfowl-hunting would be familiar to any who arrived in Louisiana from foreign shores. Even in Egypt, a shrine in the tomb of King Tutankhamun shows a depiction of the pharaoh hunting birds. Because his hunting grounds were known as “Swamps of Enjoyment,” I venture that he would have been at home in Louisiana’s marshes.

While ducks were common, geese held considerable distinction throughout the ages. The Romans considered geese sacred, and the Greeks domesticated and fattened them. In medieval Europe, geese of the village were presented to conquering heroes. In England, roasted goose was standard fare for St. Michael’s Day and Christmas. For me, too, geese are my favorite waterfowl to eat. I love wood duck as much as the next guy, but give me a specklebelly and I’m in heaven. I guess others feel the same, because in south Louisiana, we don’t hunt geese; we hunt “rib-eye in the sky”!

Chef John D. Folse is an entrepreneur with interests ranging from restaurant development to food manufacturing, catering to culinary education. Similar recipes can be found in After the Hunt: Louisiana’s Authoritative Collection of Wild Game & Game Fish Cookery (Chef John Folse & Company).