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Goose, Cold, to Hash

A hash made from the remains of a cold goose, simmered with onions, butter, herbs, and optional port, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Goose, Cold, to Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Cut the cold goose into small, convenient-sized pieces.

  2. In a stewpan, fry the sliced onions in butter until tender but not burnt.

  3. Add stock or water for sauce, pepper, salt, sweet herbs, bones, skin of the goose, and port or claret if desired.

  4. Boil gently until the gravy is well-flavored, then strain it.

  5. Thicken the gravy if necessary, then add the pieces of goose to heat through without boiling.

Serve

  1. If available, heat the goose stuffing in the oven.

  2. Serve the goose on a hot dish, pour the gravy over it, and garnish with toasted bread shapes and stuffing.

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

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 meat that is gently reheated in the gravy, so it stays tender rather than toughening.
Onion
Softens in butter and adds sweetness and savory depth to the gravy.
Butter
Carries the onion's frying and adds richness and a rounded flavor to the gravy.
Bones and skin of the goose
Release gelatin and roasted flavor into the stock, giving the gravy body and savor.
Port or claret
Adds acidity and fruity depth to the gravy when used.

The step that matters

Heat the goose without boiling. Once the goose is added to the gravy, boiling toughens the meat proteins and makes them dry and stringy. Gentle heating keeps the pieces moist and tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, pepper. 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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