Goose recipes

Goose has a wonderfully rich, buttery flavour, bordering on the beefy, thanks to its grass diet. It's certainly a fatty bird, but don't let that put you off - the flavour is worth it. The most popular strain of commercial goose is the Legarth, a white-feathered bird with a high meat-to-bone ratio. This breed is very well-suited to free-range grazing. The Embden is another white variety that shares similar characteristics. Geese, by their very nature, are all free-range, but some will, of course, be better reared than others.

Supermarkets rarely sell geese, so the best place to source a goose is from a specialist producer or good-quality butcher. If you're ordering one for Christmas, make sure you get your order in four to six weeks beforehand to ensure you get exactly what you want. However, exact timings depend on the butcher or farmer in question.