Name: Goose, Roasted
Ingredients: 1 goose; sage and onion stuffing; coarse sea salt; butter

Why it works: Sage and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,628 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Goose, Roasted

Ingredients

1 goose
sage and onion stuffing
coarse sea salt
butter

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the goose as in the preceding recipe.
Fill the goose with sage and onion stuffing and secure both ends by passing the rump through a slit in the skin and tying the neck skin to the back.
Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1½ hours, longer if the bird is large, basting frequently with its own gravy.
Remove the skewers after roasting.
Pour good brown gravy over the goose on a hot dish.
Serve apple sauce separately.

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.

Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,312 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).