Goose? Turkey? Duck? Are there other options?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, I have to feed 6 adults and 3 kids/toddlers/babies this Xmas. I don't really like turkey. I don't like duck that much either, but at least it would be a change. Can you get giant organic/free range ducks? Or geese? What is goose like?

I cooked beef wellington last year for 7 adults and one child.. You'd need more than one duck to feed that many people - there's so much fat on a duck. There's a lot of fat on goose too but it feeds more people. Mmmm - goose is lovely.

So maybe goose is the answer. I could claim I was trying to be authentically English, and go for something we never had back home in Canada?

i like pheasant. havent had it for years now though - the local butcher my dad used to use has closed

I fed 8 last year with a roast goose & cold ham (cooked on xmas eve) with all the usual trimmings. Geese only really feed up to 6 really as otherwise they are mostly fat (hence the ham to make sure everyone has enough meat).

I thought goose were a bit of a faff to cook - all that draining of the fat. My mother did one once apparently and swore never again.

Don't the folk trying to be fancy do something like a goose, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a partridge or something? You can buy these at posh butchers but they must cost a lot and sound horrible if you ask me!

I like the beef idea.

Venison - Lovely.
That's what we had last year and we are doing it again this year.
And try a Black or Bronze Turkey. Now that's what turkey should taste like

If we get turkey, it'll be free range etc. I just can't stand them.

If I do red meat, it'll be a bit of a nightmare - I don't generally do big roasts, and I do like my red meat rare, but MIL likes everything really well cooked. Ok, I've not done turkey or goose before, but I do whole chickens a lot, so at least I'll feel partway experienced.

Oh, the really fancy thing is a turducken, a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey. All deboned, I think. Sounds kinda gross to me.

Also, any food stuff with the word "turd" in it is just basically dubious, at least to me.

It sounds....sort of..... the word that comes to mind is incestuous, but that doesn't quite cover it.

Ugh, anyway.

what about a big leg of lamb or pork?

I think duck is tricky (and prob quite difficult to get one big enough to feed that many)

Goose is ok - but might be easier to do something you've done before (which I imagine you have with lamb or pig)

It sounds Roman to me, in the worst possible sense of the word. Brings to mind people eating hummingbirds and using vomitoriums.

Haven't really done big legs of lamb or pork ... pork might be doable, it's meant to be well done by everyone's lights, which is a start!

(Actually, it's no wonder the Americans have invented the turducken, what with the modern-day US being Rome just before its fall ...)

yes, v few complaints about how pork is done - also means you have an excuse to do crackling

I think nigella (someone correct me if I'm wrong) does a fab slow roasted pork that is really melt in the mouth delicious

Hmm, could do a duck and a chicken, with different things on the outside ... something like that might appeal ...

Yeah, the geese I could find online didn't seem big enough for everyone, and the fat is slightly offputting, tbh ...

you could snap up the Waitrose four bird roast for a mere £200.

I believe the court of Henry VIII did something similar, but involving much large animal carcasses, going down to much smaller ones.

Ugh to Roman food too. Fried dormice and salted dates. Dirty bastards.

For the last couple of years we've just gone for the best quality free-range chicken we could buy - about £20 but very nice indeed

Is that £200 uncooked? I couldn't see from the site.

My ILs quite like the Waitrose food servicey things, I don't quite get the appeal ...

Ive done goose twice now (the first being the first time Id cooked it ever) & it is really easy tbh. All you need is a large jug and one of those basters than suck up the fat (like a giant pippet iykwim). Take the goose out every 30 mins or so (I think) & tilt the pan so the juices run to one end (you may need some help if you are a weakling like me!) and then suck up all the excess fat putting it into the jug. Then when xmas dinner is all finished you will have enough goose fat to do most of your roast spuds well into spring - just freeze it in old marge pots.

With the beef wellington, the middle stays rare but the ends get more well done. You could give your MIL an end piece?

I'm pleased not to be hosting Christmas this year. It is so hard to please everyone and manage to have an enjoyable day yourself. My advice is to do something you know and something simple. Fancy up the vegetables.

Hmm, am wavering about goose. Might ask SIL about preferences ...

I think beef wellington sounds nice, but frankly, I don't even know what it is, so I think trying to cook it for Xmas dinner would be a mistake.