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Personally, I despise turkey. I think it's a cheap bird and it never tastes right to me.

In our family, we always did Rock Cornish Game hens, and that was nice because everyone got their own little bird. I will be forever amused that the rugged and individualist United States never figured this one out and insisted on the communal and egalitarian turkey.

I like up-right cooking as I think it's better presentation. You don't get a soggy-backed bird and ALL of the skin (that's where the salmonella is!) is crisped just right. Depending on what bird you're cooking, this is either a blessing or a curse.

I also see at my local Tom Thumb (one of the Safeway brands), there's almost no turkey, but still six frozen "young goose" available. It would appear that no one here knows how to cook a goose. I did not see any capon or duck, which is a pity.

The important part in cooking a goose is to not braise it as you would any non-water-going foul. There's plenty of oil in the skin already and adding more juice to it will just create an impenetrable shell. My grandparents discovered this once, much to their chagrin.



I love Peking duck, but I'm not cool with that guy putting his mouth on it.