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Goose, How to Choose

Choose a young goose. This is more easily said than done, as geese are frequently offered for sale when they are much too old to be eaten. The breast should be plump, the skin white, and the feet pliable and yellow. If the last are red or stiff, the bird is old or stale. Although Michaelmas is the time for geese, they are in perfection about June; after Christmas the flesh is tough. A goose ought not to be eaten after it is a year old. It is said that Queen Elizabeth was the originator of the Michaelmas goose. She had one on the table before her, when the news arrived of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and she commanded the same dish to be served every succeeding Michaelmas. Green or young geese come into season in March.