Goose is too greasy for me personally. But then I've only had wild goose.

I'd probably add a seafood entree like a shrimp dish or salmon. Shrimp Scampi?

I made a high end farm bred goose once, for similar reasons, but it was a dinner that happened on Christmas rather than it being our holiday, so much less pressure. Geese are long, so you need to consider your pot, if making whole. Also, the "feeds" number was technically accurate, but the carvable meat was significantly less. Several portions of scraps were picked off the carcase and between the bones, next day. It wasn't gamey, though modern standards sometimes call meat having any flavor at all "gamey". The flavor of the bird itself was nice, in a dark meat way, but I didn't care for the traditional spice rub I used. It was cloying, and penetrated to the meat unusually well. It also wasn't excessively fatty for a water bird. I much prefer duck. As a second main, it'll be a fun experiment. If you're counting on it to have enough protein, I recommend chicken or turkey, though if you truly struggle with a chicken, maybe do a big pan of parts or fillets?

Not a fan of goose or duck. I think your tenderloin sounds perfect. A baked pasta dish could appeal to college kids. Also totally make-ahead.

Good luck to you,food. My bunch fusses if I stray from the basic holiday fare. Even the slightly experimental dish is met with a pfftt. I have even gotten a lecture for my efforts. Bah!

We have an organic farm goose almost every Christmas. You need a long pan and a biggish oven and you get nothing like the meat off it as off a turkey. There is a lot of fat but you pour it off and it will keep for months to make fabulous roast potatoes. Something like apple or orange helps too. As does red cabbage and cranberry sauce. I always make sage and onion stuffing. I do not do any kind of marinading or rub. The meat us full of flavour as it is. We like game and love duck so we don't notice anything wrong with the flavour. Not that goose is very gamey anyway. Personally we love it but if you're not sure it might be best to do a trial run. It is actually a very easy meal. But even the biggest goose will not feed 10. I always do a gammon as well and that's just for 8.

I've never had goose but I do love a good roast duck. One that's not too greasy, but you never know until you cook it. The trick to crispy roast duck is to flip it a couple times during roasting.

I had goose once. It had buckshot in it. You take a bite and try too sift it out of your mouth into a napkin. I liked the taste of the goose, but it had a stringy texture...which was fine. I'd think people might find it new-to-them and interesting....but...I wouldn't serve it instead of chicken. Chicken is safe...everyone likes it. I'd go with chicken.

I think you guys have talked me out of it, though I’m interested in trying.

”Personally we love it but if you're not sure it might be best to do a trial run.”

What’s it cost your side of the pond? At $15.99 a pound for the cheaper of the two brands, I’d be looking at a $160 experiment, minimum.

Goose is not readily available in standard grocery stores in the U.S. and not as widely eaten as in the UK, and I had to look up gammon. A spiral cut ham would be an easy second with your beef tenderloin and both probably more apt to be a hit with American college kids than goose.

Skipping down to comment - I prefer duck - goose always seems a bit stringier and bonier. Both will make a big mess in the oven because of all the fat. Martha Stewart recommends lining your oven with foil first. I learned the hard way 😏

We went through a decade of roasting goose for Christmas - it felt very special as a young family at the time - I bet your young people would be very intrigued to try the goose, and so why not go for it !

I agree it's problematic to roast a large bird and even then not get enough servings ..., the first year we came up short and I had just a morsel that year. We started adding a duck 'on the side' . We used a scandinavian recipe for years with a warming spice rub I think...

Haven't done goose in quite awhile, but this one year was memorable :

https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/roast-goose-cooked-three-ways-2154639.html

I cut up 2 geese and one foodie friend did the meatballs, another the confit of the thighs, and we roasted the breast - it was quite elegant and made possible by spreading out the work. I rendered the fat from trimmings and made the best roast potatoes, and the carcass was available for stock plenty in advance...

Anyway, I just wanted to put my two cents in because goose was our thing for a long while. (Haven't figured out what to do this year, guests are yet to be determined - maybe it's time to have a goose again).

SWMBO and I roasted a Christmas goose once. We didn’t know any better and stuffed it like turkey. I recall the stuffing turned out horrific and the whole process was not unlike changing the oil on a hot engine. What did it taste like - no idea.

I stuff our goose, as well as making stuffing balls. Somehow the stuffing is not saturated in fat. There are some large bits of fat which I remove before cooking and of course the bird is up on a rack. I pour off some fat during cooking too. The fat seems to drain off the bird pretty well and the meat ends up not particularly greasy. I keep the fat for roasting potatoes in the following year. Goose fat is great stuff and you can buy it in shops. One guest we had took a container of it home to Germany, so prized is it there.