Name: Roast Goose
Ingredients: one ounce green sage chopped fine; one cup raisins; one cup of fine chopped apples; one teaspoonful of butter; a large cupful of stale bread crumbs; four onions; one tea- spoonful salt; two eggs

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Roast Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Parboil geese and ducks if old.
Put them in sufficient water to cover and simmer about two hours.

Make and stuff

Make a stuffing with four onions, one ounce green sage chopped fine, a large cupful of stale bread crumbs and the same amount of mashed potatoes, one cup raisins, one cup fine chopped apples, one teaspoonful butter, one teaspoonful salt, pepper, and two eggs.
Mix the stuffing well together and stuff the body of the goose.

Roast and serve

Place the stuffed goose in a hot oven and bake about one hour and a half.
Serve with apple sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

838Calories

22 gProtein

19 gFat

147 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 8 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Sage	1 tsp ground (0.7g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog]. 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

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sage + appletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together755 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sage + teatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together53 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Raisin + appletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread crumbs: Give the stuffing body and absorb moisture from the fruit and onions.
Eggs: Bind the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Apples: Add moisture and a mild sweetness that balances the rich goose.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the stuffing.
Onions: Add savory aroma and depth to the stuffing.
Green sage: Adds a herbal, aromatic flavour that suits rich poultry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, raisin, apple, butter, bread, tea, egg):

Sweet potatofits better
Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, raisin, apple, butter, bread, tea, egg. 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.