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Onion and Sage Goose Stuffing

A savory stuffing made with onions, bread crumbs, butter, sage, salt, pepper, and optional egg yolk for goose.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Onion and Sage Goose Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Wash, peel, and parboil the onions for 20 minutes. Alternatively, use them raw for a stronger flavor.

  2. Drain and finely mince the onions.

Combine

  1. In a bowl, mix the minced onions with bread crumbs, butter, sage, salt, and pepper. Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Optionally, add the egg yolk.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and absorb moisture so the stuffing holds its body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing moist and tender.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma; parboiling mellows their sharpness, while raw onions taste stronger.
Egg yolk
Binds the crumbs and onions together, helping the stuffing hold its shape.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, sage, pepper, egg. 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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