Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Boiled Goose with Pickled Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Plunge the goose into boiling salted water with the onion.
Simmer until tender.
Serve in portions with a slice of boiled ham or leg of salt pork.
Accompany with celery 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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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,159 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ham + celerytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,608 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,314 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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 main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering in liquid.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic flavour to the cooking water that is absorbed by the goose.
- Salt pork or boiled ham
- Adds savoury, salty flavour as an accompanying portion alongside the goose.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, ham, sauce):
- Capersfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Celerythe original
- Parsleyfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, ham, 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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