Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Roast Goose
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Singe the goose and remove pin feathers.
Wash the goose in warm soapy water, then rinse in cold water and dry inside and out.
Stuff the goose with potato stuffing, sew it up, and truss it.
Place the goose on a rack in a pan and cover the breast with slices of fat salt pork.
Roast
Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 hour.
Remove the pan from the oven and pour off all the fat, then dredge the goose with flour.
When the flour is brown, add a little hot water and baste often.
Cook until the goose is brown and tender.
Make gravy and serve
Make gravy from the fat in the pan, flour, and hot water, seasoning to taste.
Serve the roast goose with apple sauce.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,581 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Potato + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together603 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young goose
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and browned through slow roasting.
- Flour
- Browns on the goose's surface and thickens the fat into gravy.
- Fat salt pork slices
- Baste the breast with melting fat, keeping the meat moist and adding savoury flavour.
- Potato stuffing
- Fills the cavity and gently steams from the bird's juices, adding moisture and flavour.
The step that matters
Pouring off the fat and dredging with flour. Removing the rendered fat before dredging lets the flour brown rather than fry in grease, and baste often so the surface browns without drying.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pork, flour, pepper, sauce):
- Avocadofits better
- Limefits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, flour, pepper, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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