Michaelmas Goose makes an appearance at The Goring Dining Room

26th August 2010, 11:30am

London’s family-owned luxury hotel, The Goring, is placing Michaelmas Goose on its lunch and dinner set menu for one week, next month.

The Goring Dining Room is one of very few places that serves Michaelmas Goose and chef Derek Quelch loves putting it on the menu, as he explained: "Michaelmas goose is leaner and particularly tender with a delicious flavour all of its own. And with a fresh Michaelmas goose, you know you're eating a naturally reared and traditional food."

Michaelmas, or the feast of St Michael, falls on 29 September, close to the equinox, so it is associated with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days.

In the past, at the end of the harvest, it was customary for tenants to present their landlords with a traditional 'green' goose fed on the harvest stubble.

The Michaelmas goose is also known as the 'green' goose because it is reared on grass, as opposed to the Christmas goose which is a larger, older bird brought into the farmstead later in the autumn to be finished on corn.

In the past the traditional connection between Michaelmas and the goose was as strong as it is today between Christmas and the turkey, and everyone who could afford to, ate goose on St Michael's Day.

Roast Michaelmas Goose with all the trimmings will be on the main set menu as a choice in the Dining Room at The Goring for one week only, from Monday 27 September to Saturday 2 October 2010.

Lunch (£35.00 for 3 courses) and Dinner (£47.50 for three courses).