Christmas birds of a feather

One of the happy circumstances of celebrating the Christmas festival in mid-winter is that it coincides with the peak season not just of turkeys, but also of geese and all kinds of game. This gives us an enormous choice both for Christmas lunch itself and for all the other kinds of entertaining that will crop up.

In Britain the goose always used to be the favoured bird at the Christmas table. Geese do not take kindly to intensive rearing, so more and more farmers are producing large flocks of free-range birds fed naturally on grass and post-harvest stubble. If you are ordering one from a local butcher or supplier, look out for that golden-yellow skin that is the sign that it has been grass-fed: pale whitish skin indicates some other type of feeding and rearing. An 11-12 lb (5-5.5 kg) bird is the ideal weight, and will serve eight people quite generously. Although (like ducks) geese have a substantial layer of fat under the skin, this melts during the cooking and acts as an excellent internal basting process. It helps to keep the meat moist and succulent, but if it is poured off as it escapes during the cooking, the meat will not become fatty.

For centuries geese were marched from their breeding grounds in the country, on journeys that might take weeks, to the outskirts of the cities, where they would be re-fattened for market. But whereas turkeys later on submitted to being shod in tar and leather for the walk, geese stubbornly resisted the option (hence the impossibility of 'shoeing a goose'). Over the past decade they have returned to popularity – and at least now get transported to market!

Be that as it may, I personally feel that a goose is more appropriate for a Christmas dinner party or New Year's celebration than for Christmas lunch itself – the reason being that there is never enough left over, and I like to put my feet up on Boxing Day! However, a goose always features somewhere in my Christmas plans, not least because I would hate to miss out on that very special flavour.

Ducks, too (which have never been short on flavour), do not offer rich pickings for Boxing Day, although varieties are now being bred with meatier flesh and less fat – Gressingham and Barbary ducks are good examples. But if you are only cooking Christmas lunch for two, a roast duck is well worth considering.

The great virtue of game birds is that they still offer the rich 'free-range' flavour that we have almost lost in chicken: indeed, a pheasant (with all the trimmings) invariably takes me back to my childhood, recapturing what a good old roast chicken tasted like then. For a small family (of two or three) a brace of pheasant provides a real taste of luxury and – if the gluts of recent years continue – at not too exorbitant a price. Like turkey, pheasant is excellent cold the next day and makes wonderful sandwiches!