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Mock Goose

A beef roast stuffed with sage, onion, and goose fat, shaped like a goose and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mock Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut out the fillet or side of the sirloin of beef.

  2. Steep the beef in port wine and vinegar.

  3. Cut it open and stuff it with sage, onion, and goose fat.

  4. Roast over a brisk fire.

Make the liquor

  1. Mix sage, lemon peel, salt, minced goose or shallot, and cayenne pepper, then steep this mixture in 1 pint of claret for two weeks, shaking daily.

  2. Decant the clear liquor and bottle it.

Assemble and bake

  1. Remove bones from two geese and two fowls, and boil a tongue.

  2. Slice the meat into finger-sized pieces and layer with bacon, onion, marjoram, thyme, mushrooms, and parsley.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, allspice, and mace.

  4. Roll the layers into the shape of a goose and tie tightly with tape.

  5. Blanch and place in a basin with goose bones and 2 quarts of strong gravy, then boil.

  6. Prepare a raised pie crust and fill it with the cold goose and its gravy, which will form a jelly.

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 + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin of beef
Forms the main body of the dish, roasted and rolled into the goose shape.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture, basting the lean meat as it cooks and layers.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the beef during its initial steeping.
Vinegar
Acidity in the steeping liquid tenderises the beef and sharpens its flavour.
Fresh sage leaves
Contributes a herbal aroma that carries through the stuffing and the liquor.

The step that matters

Roll and tie the layers tightly. Tight rolling and tying keeps the layered meat in a compact shape while it cooks, so the slices hold together when cut and the gravy stays evenly distributed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, port wine, vinegar, sage, lemon, shallot, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, port wine, vinegar, sage, lemon, shallot, pepper. 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.

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