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A Goose Pie

A savory pie of goose pieces, smoked tongue, and gravy encased in a butter‑flour crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

A Goose Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Season the goose pieces with salt and pepper.

  2. Reserve the giblets for gravy.

  3. Soak the smoked tongue overnight, then parboil, peel, and slice it thickly.

  4. Cut the root of the tongue into small pieces and place in a saucepan with the giblets and enough water to stew slowly.

Make the pie

  1. In a bowl, mix 1½ cups of butter with 3 pounds of flour to make a paste.

  2. Roll out the paste thickly and line the bottom and sides of a deep dish.

  3. Fill the dish with the goose pieces and tongue slices.

  4. Skim the gravy from the giblets, thicken it with browned flour, and pour it into the pie dish.

  5. Cover with a lid or upper crust, notching and decorating it with paste leaves and flowers.

Bake

  1. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 3 hours.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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, whose fat and juices enrich the pie filling as it cooks.
Unsalted butter
Mixed into the flour to make a rich paste that is firm enough to hold its shape.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structural paste that lines and covers the pie, setting as it bakes.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy so it holds together rather than running out of the pie.
Smoked tongue
Adds a savory, smoky flavor and meaty texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Skim the gravy before thickening. Skimming removes excess fat from the giblet stock, so the thickened gravy is smooth and not greasy. Thickening with flour then gives it body that holds once poured into the pie.

“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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