Forget the turkey, here's how to make Christmas goose with stuffing and gravy
A delicious Christmas goose. Photo: Bríd O'Donovan.
It was forever being said that 'next year will be the year we will ditch the turkey and cook a goose for Christmas'. Although my mother was particularly good at bringing out the best in turkey, we always felt that the grass would be greener if we ever got round to ordering a goose early enough to beat the demand for the only 12,000 or so sold in Ireland each year.
The farming of geese in Ireland goes back to ancient times and the ones we now eat are all descended from the greylag goose of Northern Europe. Brehon laws held them in higher regard than sheep, with two birds getting the same amount of grazing land as one sheep.
