A lot of people claim white-fronted geese (specklebellies) taste the best of any, and while they're good I don't see that much difference, and I've eaten a lot of snows and Canadas.
Young-of-the-yeart birds are tenderer, but geese benefit from the same "aging" process as any meat. We typically leave them in the refrigerator or, if the weather's cool enough, the garage for a few days. This definitely helps, along with not over-cooking if roasting or frying. If cooked by slow/moist methods even an old goose will be plenty tender and moist.
Wild geese don't typically have nearly as much fat as domestic geese. My wife just cooked a lesser Canada a couple of days in an oven bag, and it may have lost an ounce of melted fat. Anybody claiming a quart of fat melts off a goose is thinking of domestic geese. Personally, I like the little bit of fat on wild geese--as long as they haven't been in the freezer very long. Any off-taste is accentuated by long freezing.
Thanks, good info!
