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Mock Goose

A rolled steak stuffed with mashed potatoes, onion, herbs, and salt pork, baked and served with brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Mock Goose

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Pound the round steak well and lay it on a table.

  2. In a bowl, mix the cold mashed potatoes, chopped onion, pepper, coarse sea salt, sage, and butter.

  3. Spread the mixture on the steak and roll it up tightly.

  4. Fasten the roll with string or skewers.

Bake and serve

  1. Place small pieces of salt pork around the roll and add a little butter.

  2. Baste well and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for two hours.

  3. Serve with brown gravy.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the outer meat wrapper that becomes tender during the long, moist bake.
Cold mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and body to the stuffing so it stays soft inside the roll.
Salt pork
Renders fat over the roll, adding flavour and moisture as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown while basting.

The step that matters

Rolling and fastening the steak tightly. A tight, well-fastened roll keeps the stuffing inside during baking. Loose rolling lets filling escape and the meat cook unevenly.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper, butter, pork. 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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