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An English Christmas-Goose Pie

A pie made by stuffing a goose with forcemeat and other ingredients, then baking it.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

An English Christmas-Goose Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone and season the goose and large fowl highly.

Stuff and stew

  1. Stuff the fowl with forcemeat made of minced tongue or ham, veal, parsley, suet, pepper, salt, and 2 eggs.

  2. Stew the stuffed fowl for 20 minutes in a little good stock in a covered stewpan.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the fowl inside the goose and fill any gaps with forcemeat or slices of parboiled tongue or small birds.

  2. Put plenty of butter over the meat.

  3. Bake the pie in a raised crust for 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  3. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together when sliced.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture to the forcemeat as it melts during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the meat as it bakes.
Forcemeat
Fills the fowl and gaps, giving a moist, dense filling that holds the pie together.

The step that matters

Stew the stuffed fowl before assembling. Stewing gently cooks the stuffed fowl through and sets the forcemeat so it holds its shape. Keeping it covered and at a gentle simmer retains moisture in the meat.

“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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