Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Roast Goose
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Singe and remove pin feathers from the goose.
Wash the goose in warm soap suds to cleanse it and open the pores.
Draw the goose as you would a turkey or chicken, then wash in cold water and wipe dry inside and out.
Stuff the goose with potato stuffing, sew it up, and truss it.
Place the goose on a rack in a pan and cover the breast with slices of fat salt pork.
Roast
Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 hour.
Remove the pan from the oven and pour off all the fat, then dredge the goose with flour.
When the flour is brown, add a little hot water and baste often.
Cook until the goose is brown and tender.
Serve
Make gravy from some of the fat in the pan, flour, and hot water, seasoning to taste.
Serve the roast goose with apple sauce.
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.
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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Pork + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,581 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Potato + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together603 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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, which becomes tender and browned during long roasting.
- Flour
- Browns on the surface when dredged and thickens the fat into gravy.
- Fat salt pork
- Covers the breast to baste the meat and keep it moist as it roasts.
- Potato stuffing
- Fills the cavity and adds moisture and flavour to the inside of the bird.
The step that matters
Basting after the flour browns. Adding hot water and basting often keeps the flour crust from scorching and keeps the meat moist, so the goose cooks tender rather than dry.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pork, flour, sauce):
- Avocadofits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, flour, sauce. 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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