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Devilled Goose

A roasted goose stuffed with mashed potatoes and herbs, finished with a vinegar and jelly glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Devilled Goose

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.

Prepare and stuff

  1. Plunge the goose into a pot of boiling water and let it cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Prepare the stuffing by mixing mashed potatoes, butter, onions, sage, parsley, thyme, and black pepper.

  3. Stuff the goose with the mixture and place it in a pan with the slice of fat pork and broth.

Season and bake

  1. Combine pepper vinegar, celery vinegar, mustard, and acid fruit jelly, then pour over the goose.

  2. Butter the breast of the goose and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), dredging with flour and basting frequently until done.

Serve

  1. Serve with its own gravy.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Goose
Provides the main meat, and its fat renders during roasting to moisten and flavor the bird.
Mashed irish potatoes
Bind the stuffing and add moisture and body inside the bird.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the breast skin brown in the oven.
Broth or meat liquor
Provides liquid in the pan that keeps the meat moist and forms the base of the gravy.
Pepper vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that cuts the richness of the goose fat.

The step that matters

Baking and basting. Goose has a lot of fat and a thick breast, so it can dry out or stay underdone in the center. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and helps the skin brown evenly, while the fat renders out during roasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, sage, parsley, thyme, pepper, pork):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, sage, parsley, thyme, pepper, pork. 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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