Goose is the meat of the domesticated greylag, Anser anser, a large web-footed bird far bigger, darker and fattier than chicken. It is a festive roasting bird above all — the traditional centrepiece of the European Christmas and Michaelmas table — renowned for the abundant, prized fat it renders and for rich, deeply savoury dark meat. Fattened geese also yield foie gras, the enlarged liver that is one of the grandest of luxury foods.