Name: Roast Goose, Chestnut Stuffing
Ingredients: 1 young goose; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; 4 strips of fat salt pork; Parsley for garnish; Holly berries for garnish

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Goose, Chestnut Stuffing

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Singe, wash, clean, stuff, and truss the goose.
Sprinkle the goose with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Lay the fat salt pork strips over the breast.
Place the goose on a rack in a dripping pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 2 hours.
Baste every 15 minutes with the fat in the pan.
Remove the pork after 1.5 hours of cooking.
Transfer the goose to a hot serving dish and garnish with parsley and holly berries.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + parsleytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,804 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).