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Roast Goose

Roast goose with onion filling, seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, and baked slowly with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the goose inside and out with vinegar.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped onions with salt, pepper, and sage.

  3. Fill the body of the goose with the onion mixture at least 12 hours before baking.

Bake

  1. Just before baking, dredge the goose with pepper, salt, and flour.

  2. Place the goose in a baking pan with 1 cup of hot water.

  3. Cook in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3.5 to 4 hours, basting frequently.

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

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

  3. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Goose
Is the main protein; its fat renders during slow roasting, keeping the meat moist and crisping the skin.
Onions
Perfume the meat from inside as they soften, adding sweetness and moisture during roasting.
Vinegar
Acidity on the surface helps cleanse and firm the skin before roasting.
Flour
Dusted on the skin, it helps the surface brown and crisp in the oven.

The step that matters

Fill the goose at least 12 hours before baking. Salt and sage need time to penetrate the onion mixture and flavor the meat, so the filling must rest in the bird well before roasting rather than being added at the last minute.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, sage, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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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