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Roast Goose

A whole goose roasted with a stuffing of bread crumbs, butter, onions, sage, pepper, and salt, served with currant jelly and apple sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the goose

  1. Kill the goose at least 24 hours before cooking.

  2. Cut the neck close to the back.

  3. Flatten the breastbone with a rolling pin.

  4. Tie the wings and legs securely.

  5. Stuff the goose with a mixture of bread crumbs, butter, chopped onions, sage, black pepper, and salt.

  6. Do not overstuff; seal openings tightly to keep moisture in.

  7. If the goose is not fatty, lard it with salt pork or place a slice on the breast.

Roast

  1. Place the goose in a baking pan with a little water.

  2. Baste frequently with saltwater (add onion and vinegar if desired).

  3. Turn the goose often to ensure even browning on all sides.

  4. When nearly done, baste with butter and a little flour.

  5. Bake for two hours or longer if the goose is older.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once done, remove from the pan.

  2. Pour off the fat.

  3. Add the chopped giblets and their cooking water to the brown gravy left in the pan.

  4. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter rubbed together.

  5. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  6. Serve with currant jelly and apple sauce.

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

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sage + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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, whose fat renders out during roasting and bastes the bird.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and juices in the stuffing, keeping it moist and giving it body.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the skin brown when basted over the bird near the end.
Flour
Thickens the pan gravy and helps the basting butter brown on the surface.
Giblets
Add savory meaty flavor to the gravy after being stewed until tender.

The step that matters

Turning and basting the goose often. Goose has a lot of fat that must render out slowly. Frequent turning spreads heat so the skin browns evenly, and basting keeps the surface moist and golden rather than dry or patchy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, onion, sage, pepper, pork, flour):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, onion, sage, pepper, pork, 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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