Name: To Roast a Goose
Ingredients: two onions very fine

To Roast a Goose

A goose roasted with sage, onions, butter, pepper, salt, flour, and lard, finished with a splash of boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription

To Roast a Goose

Ingredients

two onions very fine

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

Chop a few sage leaves and two onions very finely.
Mix the chopped sage leaves and onions with a good lump of butter, a teaspoonful of pepper, and two teaspoons of salt.
Put the mixture into the goose.

Roast

Spit the goose.
Lay the goose down.
Dust the goose with flour.
When the goose is thoroughly hot, baste it with nice lard.
If the goose is large, roast it for an hour and a half over a good clear fire.
When the goose is enough, dredge and baste it.
Pull out the spit.
Pour a little boiling water into the goose.

By Mary Randolph (1762–1828). 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Onions: Adds savoury flavour and aroma to the stuffing as they cook in the goose.
Butter (in the method): Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing.
Lard (in the method): Coats the skin during basting to promote browning and crispness.

“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.