The Christmas goose
Did Stella's drunken friend just throw the bird in a pan in the stove with cleaning it ? Yuck, although I knew it was a rubber bird.
shareWho cleans a bird before cooking it? Hopefully she seasoned it, and perhaps even stuffed it, but you don't need to give a goose or turkey a bath before you roast it.
shareAlthough we usually brought frozen holiday poultry, my elders always rinsed our birds off, prior to preparing them for roasting.
shareWe always bought a fresh bird, sometimes from a farm where you'd point to a bird and they'd catch it, kill it, and pluck it for you. Other years we'd buy one from a market. I never knew anyone to wash a bird, just like I never saw anyone wash a steak or a pork chop. You want the bird as dry as possible before you roast it so it browns and gets crispy, so washing it seems counterproductive.
shareWe did that too. Sometimes, my mom and I would go to a poultry house and pick a live goose or duck.
shareWe mostly ate turkey. One year I wanted a Christmas goose, so I roasted a goose in one oven and a turkey in the other. I couldn't believe how much fat rendered off the goose. All things being equal, however, Christmas Eve has always been my preferred meal. We're Sicilian, so it's all seafood.
shareI heard about the seafood tradition in Italian households.
shareMy elders use to rub goose grease on my chest and back as a kid in the 70's when I had a cold. I don't recall how effective it was.
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