Why it works: Sauce and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Goose Scalloped with Hominy
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Assemble
Cover the bottom of a baking dish with hominy.
Add a layer of goose meat and half the gravy.
Add another layer of hominy, followed by more goose meat and the remaining gravy.
Top with browned breadcrumbs.
Bake
Bake until the crumbs are golden brown.
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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Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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
- Cooked goose
- Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the dish.
- Gravy or white sauce
- Adds moisture and binds the layers so the dish stays tender.
- Cooked hominy
- Forms the starchy base layers that give the casserole body.
- Breadcrumbs browned in goose fat
- Creates a crisp, golden topping through browning in fat.
The step that matters
Layer the gravy evenly. Dividing the gravy between the layers keeps the meat and hominy moist during baking. Too little sauce lets the casserole dry out and turn tough.
“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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