Skip to main content
Main

Roast Goose

Roast goose stuffed with bread crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, and sage, baked and basted, served with stewed apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sage and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Roast Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and truss the goose.

  2. If the goose is old, boil it for 30 minutes wrapped in a clean cloth.

Stuff and roast

  1. Stuff the goose with bread crumbs mixed with butter, pepper, salt, and sage.

  2. Dot the goose with drippings or lard.

  3. Baste the goose frequently while baking.

  4. Optionally, use mashed potatoes and sweet marjoram for stuffing instead of bread crumbs.

Serve

  1. Serve with stewed apples.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Potato + marjoramtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Goose
Is the main protein; its fat renders during roasting and keeps the meat moist as it bastes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and seasoning in the stuffing, adding bulk and a soft, moist texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps the crumbs brown.
Sage
Contributes an earthy, aromatic flavour that suits rich poultry.

The step that matters

Baste the goose frequently while baking. Goose has a lot of fat under the skin, and basting moves hot fat over the surface, helping the skin crisp and the meat stay moist. Skipping it can leave the skin soft and the meat dry.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, pepper, sage, marjoram, apple):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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

More roast goose recipes

and Turkey 4with Apple Dressing 4Potato Stuffing for 3with Potato Stuffing 3with Sage and Onion Stuffing 3 See all 150 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes