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Roast Goose

A whole goose roasted with a stuffing of bread crumbs, onion, potato, pepper, salt, sage, and butter, served with apple sauce and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Goose

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the goose

  1. Pluck the goose, remove the quill-sockets, and singe off the hairs.

  2. Cut off the neck close to the back, leaving enough skin to turn over.

  3. Draw, wash, and wipe the bird inside and out.

  4. Cut off the feet and pinions at the first joint.

  5. Pull out the throat and tie the end securely.

  6. Beat the breast-bone flat with a rolling pin.

  7. Draw the legs up closely and skewer them through the body.

  8. Cut off the end of the vent.

  9. Make a hole in the skin for the rump to go through.

Stuff and roast

  1. Make stuffing with bread crumbs, onion, potato, pepper, salt, sage, and butter.

  2. Fill the goose with the stuffing and tie down the wings.

  3. Roast the goose at 350°F (175°C) for 2½ hours.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Boil the liver and heart.

  2. Add the boiled liver and heart to the gravy thickened with flour.

  3. Serve with apple sauce and mashed potatoes.

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.

  1. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Goose
Is the main dish, providing the meat and fat that roast during cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the juices and fat in the stuffing, keeping it moist and holding its shape.
Potato
Adds starch and moisture to the stuffing, giving it a soft, bound texture.
Onion
Adds aroma and sweetness to the stuffing as it cooks inside the bird.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps it brown.
Flour
Thickens the gravy by swelling with the cooking juices to give a smooth body.

The step that matters

Roast the goose at 350°F (175°C) for 2½ hours. Goose has a thick layer of fat under the skin. Cooking at a moderate heat lets that fat render out slowly, which keeps the meat tender and the skin crisp rather than burnt or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, bread, potato, pepper, sage, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, bread, potato, pepper, sage, flour. 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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