Why it works: Pine and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 176 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Baked Goose
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix 4 tablespoons of pecan meal, 2 tablespoons of roasted pine-nut butter, 1 heaping teaspoon of sage, 2 heaping teaspoons of grated onion, and salt to taste.
Use this mixture to shape the back and legs of the goose.
In another bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of nut meal from toasted almonds, 1 tablespoon of blanched filbert meal, 1 tablespoon of roasted pine-nut meal, a little salt, a little sage, and 1 teaspoon of onion juice.
Use this mixture to form the breast and wings of the goose.
Break macaroni into desired lengths for the bones.
On a greased baking sheet, shape the pecan mixture into a goose lying on its back, inserting a stick of macaroni for the backbone.
Form the legs using the pecan mixture, pressing macaroni into the center for the leg bones.
Shape the breast with the almond mixture, making it high but not as full as a chicken's breast.
Press the legs onto the body using a little egg white to adhere them.
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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Pine + almondtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together176 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pine + sagetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together61 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + filberttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together52 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sage + almondtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together61 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the filbert
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pine, butter, sage, onion, almond, egg):
- Pistachiofits better
- Walnutfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Filbertthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pine, butter, sage, onion, almond, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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