Goose for Christmas????

[Jardiniere]

i've been cooking goose at Xmas for a few years now (should be ready by now i hear you say) and i cant afford the really expensive ones and have always bought a frozen one ...and they are OK but only just go round......i would love to buy one here in france and take it back but we travel on the 17th so i dont think it would keep!!

[SarzWix]

I've just ordered a 10lb-ish locally reared free range chicken for our Christmas dinner It's going to cost about £25, which is the far limit of what we can afford really, but it'll be worth it and every scrap will get used.

[wollyanna]

We'll be having a frozen Norfolk turkey this year but as we are going to our daughter and family in Dubai it will be a bit on the expensive side. The children choose the tree and I'm glad to say its a Yorkshire grown tree and last suprisingly well. Weve traditionally followed the turkey on Cristmas day with leg of Pork on Boxing Day at home but when we go to Dubai this can prove very expensive as you have to get the pork from specialares of the supermarkets and of course the price goes up.

[Alice]

Goose is not a cheap option Danmon. A good goose will cost from £40 - £60 , will not feed all that many people, and don't count on any leftovers. It's up to you if you think it's worth it - or what else you could get for the same money.
You could get a very big turkey - nothing special in my book.
Or some first class beef + a free range ckicken + a duck + some venison.
I know where my £60 will be going.

Northepaul, last year Lidl had turkey crowns. They were good value for money if you had loads to feed on a budget or wanted to have plenty for sandwiches. They also had hare, pigeons, pheasant and loads of sea food things for good prices. It all seemed to be from Eastern Europe. It's up to you what you want to buy.

[danmon_81]

Cheers Alice....i reckon im gonna order a organic local turkey crown and maybe some nice sirloin or ham!

[Alison]

I'm not really that fond of goose but then again I've only eaten it a couple of times so I may have just been unlucky with how it had been cooked. A good quality turkey, cooked well, is really nice to me and I love to be able to have turkey butties, turkey curry, turkey pie etc etc for about a week afterwards - although there was some food safety bloke on TV last year warning us all of the dangers of Christmas. He was hilarious and we all thought it was a joke to start with but apparently not. His advice was that you should throw any remaining meat away on Boxing Day as it wouldn't keep any longer - you have to wonder if he'd heard of fridges!

Anyway, back to the Christmas meat thing. I wouldn't buy the Lidl etc birds for ethical reasons, however good a value they appear, concerns over the life they led makes them stick in my throat and takes away any enjoyment I may have had. We get a free range turkey from a localish farm and although it'll cost 40 odd quid, the amount that costs per meal is actually very reasonable for good quality meat and I don't think you'd get that with goose. I'm happier saving up and buying that and not eating meat in other meals.

Bought another one for the freezer after Christmas last year which we had at Easter - as they were getting rid of unsold stock it was half price which was a real bargain.

[Hilary B]

We grew geese a few times. If you have grass to spare, it works out cheap. Goose was popular when people didn't expect much meat in their diet, and the fat is useful in so many ways (not as many these days, but it was used for every possible purpose).
Buying a goose is expensive. We always followed the same principle as my Mum used, to have a joint of meat for Christmas Eve, and reheated some to make the poultry go further (she chose pork and capon). A few years we had leg of goat (young, but not a kid) for Christmas eve, to contrast with the fatty goose on Christmas day (all home grown). Venison is good too (we had access to culled deer from the local herd).

[ginger ninger]

My moneys going to my local butcher who sources local farms for his meat, were having a large free range chicken, nice peice of pork, a ham joint, (not all for Christmas dinner I might add) and the piesta resistance ..... 12 small pork pies, for boxing day pie & mushy peas, we always end up with a house full of mates back.

[Rhona]

My mother usually pays about £60 for a goose. I do prefer the flavour to turkey.

I cooking my first Christmas lunch this year and can't decide whether to do turkey or goose. We've got a brilliant butcher nearby, and I'll order some beef and a ham as well, just to keep us going...

[seasprout]

My moneys going to my local butcher who sources local farms for his meat, were having a large free range chicken, nice peice of pork, a ham joint, (not all for Christmas dinner I might add) and the piesta resistance ..... 12 small pork pies, for boxing day pie & mushy peas, we always end up with a house full of mates back.

Ok, you win.

All back to yours.

[ginger ninger]

Seasprout you can come back to mine for Pie & Mushy Peas, I'll order extra just for you.....would one like mint sauce??

[northepaul]

Anyway, back to the Christmas meat thing. I wouldn't buy the Lidl etc birds for ethical reasons, however good a value they appear, concerns over the life they led makes them stick in my throat and takes away any enjoyment I may have had.

I understand what your saying, and on the whole I agree. However my reasons for choosing organic meat is not primarily because of the way the animal in question was reared, kept etc; but that it does not have chemcals hormones etc pumped into it to produce meat in record speed for the table.

My meat buying ethos is always to buy the best meat I can possibly afford. Sometimes we dont have meat of fish for dinner at all, and then have some decent quality meat once a week (usually organic, although thats not a hard and fast rule.) I always try to buy organic meat, however there is a limit to how much I can afford to pay. £80 for a goose or even £50 for a turkey is well beyond my means for one meal, and I couldnt justify that kind of expense.

Lidls goose breasts are £6.99, whole geese are £18. I cant see that that is any different than buying it from Tesco or Asda??

[Alison]

Lidls goose breasts are £6.99, whole geese are £18. I cant see that that is any different than buying it from Tesco or Asda??

It probably isn't different but then again I won't buy meat (or anythinig if I can help it) from any of the supermarkets either. Original comment wasn't meant as a rant against Lidl as oppose to other supermarkets but they got mentioned as a previous poster had identified them.

[danmon_81]

Well i've ordered my local turkey....about 10lb (should be enough for 4 + sandwiches?)....
I aslo asked them to hang a rib of beef for 30 days for me....but im not sure i'll need that much meat for 4.....maybe get some ham as well!

[HeyWayne]

We did a 7 bird roast a couple of years ago. Not bad taste wise, but was a right faff carving it.