What to cook for St. Martin’s Day: lunch plan so goose, lokše and cabbage are hot at once

On the evening before St. Martin’s Day, pat the goose dry, rub it with salt and caraway seeds, and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. The skin will dry out and crisp up better in the oven. Boil the potatoes in their skins for the lokše, peel them, and let them cool overnight. Warm potatoes would make the dough sticky and require more flour.

You can also prepare the braised red cabbage with apple and wine or sweet-and-sour green cabbage ahead of time and simply reheat it the next day. If you would like pastries on the table too, bake the St. Martin’s poppy seed crescent rolls or St. Martin’s goose-shaped yeast buns the day before as well.

• 8:30 – Place the goose stuffed with apples and onion in an oven preheated to 160 °C (325 °F), covered and breast-side down.
• 10:00 – Turn the goose breast-side up, baste it with the pan juices, and pour off the fat into a cup. Baste about every 40 minutes.
• 11:30 – Remove the lid, increase the oven temperature to 200 °C (400 °F), and roast the goose for another 30–40 minutes until crisp.
• 12:00 – Make the lokše dough with the potatoes, flour and salt, and divide it into 12 balls.
• 12:15 – Remove the goose from the oven and let it rest. Meanwhile, cook the lokše on a dry griddle or skillet and brush them with goose fat.
• 12:45 – Reheat the cabbage and carve the goose. Serve lunch at 13:00.

• 1 goose weighing 4–4.5 kg, 3 tart apples and 1 onion,
• For the lokše: 1 kg potatoes, 300 g all-purpose flour and 50 g butter—enough for 12 flatbreads,
• For the red cabbage: 1 kg cabbage, 1 apple, 1 onion and 150 ml red wine,
• Salt, whole caraway seeds, ground black pepper and, for the cabbage, apple cider vinegar, sugar, a bay leaf and cloves.

For 2–4 people, goose legs with red cabbage and lokše are enough and will fit in a smaller roasting pan. Instead of goose, you can roast a whole duck with apples or duck legs with cabbage. Goose liver makes a quick dish of liver with onions and apples, and lokše can also be made without potatoes, using flour and acidophilus cultured milk.

Find all the recipes for the day in the St. Martin’s Day recipes collection.

According to legend, St. Martin of Tours did not want to become a bishop and hid among geese, whose honking gave him away. That is why goose is roasted on his feast day. In the Czech Republic, the first bottles of young St. Martin’s wine are opened at 11:11 a.m. on St. Martin’s Day. Martin also features in a familiar weather saying: “Martin arrives on a white horse,” meaning that he often brings snow.