Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. 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 the goose
Singe the goose and remove pin feathers.
Wash the goose in warm soapy water, then rinse in cold water and dry inside and out.
Stuff the goose with potato stuffing, sew it up, and truss it.
Place the goose on a rack in a roasting pan and cover the breast with slices of fat salt pork.
Roast
Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 hour.
Remove the pan from the oven and pour off excess fat, then dredge the goose with flour.
When the flour is brown, add a little hot water and baste often.
Continue cooking until the goose is brown and tender.
Make gravy and serve
Make gravy from the fat in the pan, flour, and hot water, seasoning to taste.
Serve with apple sauce.
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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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,581 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Potato + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together603 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Goose
- The main joint, whose fat and meat become the dish once roasted slowly and basted.
- Fat salt pork
- Slices laid over the breast melt and baste the meat, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
- Flour
- Dredged over the goose and browned, it helps form a brown crust and thickens the gravy.
- Potato stuffing
- Fills the cavity, adding bulk and moisture as the goose cooks.
The step that matters
Baste after the flour browns. Adding hot water once the flour is brown loosens the crust into a glossy, flavourful layer, while frequent basting keeps the meat moist as the fat renders.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pork, flour, pepper, sauce):
- Avocadofits better
- Limefits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, flour, pepper, sauce. 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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