St. Martin's Day The traditional Martinigansl at the Putterer estate
When it gets dark early outside, the mountain peaks are already covered in snow and the anticipation of winter in the Schladming-Dachstein region is slowly becoming palpable, there is another culinary highlight around St. Martin's Day on 11 November: the goose meal.
In this blog post, you can find out how the St. Martin's goose is prepared by the Dornbusch family at Landgut Putterer in Aigen im Ennstal, the history behind this custom and other legends surrounding St. Martin's Day:
From the goose dinner to the distribution of coats and the lantern festival
St. Martin of Tours
On November 11, the Catholic Church celebrates St. Martin's Day in honour of Saint Martin. He was a Roman officer whose story about sharing his red coat with a poor, freezing beggar is familiar to everyone, at least since role-playing games in kindergarten. But how is the tradition of St. Martin's geese connected to this?
According to legend, St. Martin was chosen to be Bishop of Tours. However, as he did not feel up to this responsible office, he hid in a goose stall. However, the chattering of the geese is said to have betrayed him and so he was ultimately consecrated bishop after all. In fact, a new economic year began for the farmers on 11.11. Animals were slaughtered on this day in many places so that they did not have to be fed through the winter. Roast goose was also one of the last feasts before the great fasting began during Advent.
"I go with my lantern and my lantern with me. Up there the stars are shining and down below we are shining..." Do you know this song? Nowadays, it is still sung by children at the Lantern Festival, where the well-known legend of the distribution of the mantle is often re-enacted.
The geese from the Putterer estate
Geese can be purchased at Landgut Putterer for roasting at home for St. Martin's Day and Christmas. The young geese are delivered as 1-day-old chicks and go outside every day from their second week of life. After two months, they spend the entire time on pasture.
Recipe:
The Dornbusch family recommends the following recipe for preparing the St. Martin's goose:
The first step is to rub the goose well inside and out with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, possibly paprika and marjoram and stuff it with a few apples. It is then roasted lying on its back in a deep pan or baking tray at approx. 160 degrees. It takes 1 hour to roast each kilogram of goose. Cover the goose with a lid or aluminum foil for three quarters of this time and baste it once with its own gravy.
Shortly before the end, brush the goose with honey and cognac and turn up the heat to 220 degrees - this will make it particularly crispy.
Enjoy your meal!
All Schladming-Dachstein gourmet partners can be found here.
