Why it works: Pork and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,581 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. 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
Place the trussed goose on a rack in a dripping pan.
Sprinkle the goose with coarse sea salt.
Cover the breast with thin slices of fat salt pork.
Roast
Place the goose in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
Cook for 45 minutes, basting often with the fat in the pan.
Remove the pan from the oven and drain off the fat.
Remove the slices of pork.
Sprinkle the goose again with salt.
Dredge the goose with flour.
Return the goose to the oven.
Add 1 cup boiling water.
Baste often.
Add more water as necessary.
Sprinkle lightly with salt.
Dredge with flour again.
Cook until tender, from 1.5 to 3 hours, depending on the age of the bird.
For a very young goose, steam or braise until tender.
Dredge the goose with salt and flour.
Brown the goose in the oven.
Serve
Serve on a bed of cress, garnished with baked Snow or Jonathan apples.
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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Pork + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,581 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Flour + appletop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,140 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pork and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,187 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Goose
- Provides the rich meat and fat that the dish is built around, with the fat rendering during roasting.
- Fat salt pork
- Lays fat over the breast, adding moisture and richness as it melts into the meat.
- Flour
- Dusted on the surface, it helps the skin brown and crisp during roasting.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the skin and draws out moisture so it can crisp.
The step that matters
Drain off the fat before adding water. Goose releases a large amount of fat while roasting. Pouring it off keeps the skin from stewing in grease, so it can brown and crisp instead of turning soggy.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Applethe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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