origin and meaning of "cook your own goose"

Hi,

Anyone know where this came from and on what it is based?

The standard expression is 'Your goose is cooked', meaning that you are in big trouble. I'd understand 'You've cooked your own goose' to be derived from this, meaning 'You have caused big trouble for yourself'.

If you want to research 'Your goose is cooked', you might also like to look at the common and somewhat similar expression, 'You're a dead duck'.

Best wishes, Clive

It is possible that Johnathan Huss may have been at the center of this.  Huss was a Catholic priest in the 17th century and rallied against the church to be more open to the people, let them read the bible, a more open church.  Like Martin Luther, who rallied for the same causes, Huss was eventually burned at the stake.  In those days the translation of Huss in old German was 'goose',  so when Huss was burned the expression may have come from that. Huss called his followers Moravians because they were from an area near Czeslovakia(I know I spelled that wrong).  The Moravian church was THE first reformed Protestant religion and his followers layed low.  In 1741, Count Zinzindorf from the old country named Bethlehem, PA on a Christmas Eve and the town became a large Moravian community.  Moravian College is in Bethlehem with a bust of Johnathan Huss.  There are many structural Moravian sites in town that have been standing since the 18th century.  It is beautiful at Christmas as Moravians celebrate Christmas like no other religion.