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Goose Pie

A savory pie filled with goose, turkey, fowl, ham, tongue, and spices, baked with a raised crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Goose Pie

Ingredients

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

  1. Prepare a strong raised crust and make the sides thick and stiff.

  2. Season the goose, turkey, and fowl with pepper, salt, mace, cloves, and nutmeg, all finely pounded and mixed.

Assemble the pie

  1. Lay the goose in a dish with the breast skin side down, then add the turkey.

  2. Add slices of boiled ham and tongue, then add the fowl.

  3. Cover with bits of ham or bacon.

  4. Shape the pie in an oval form, ensuring the sides stand 1.5 inches above the meat.

  5. Place the top on the pie and make a hole in the center of the top.

  6. Brush the outside of the pie with beaten egg whites.

  7. Bind the outside with three folds of buttered paper.

  8. Paste the top over in the same way.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

  2. Remove the paper.

  3. Pour 1.5 pounds of melted butter through the hole using a funnel.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Goose
Provides the rich, fatty meat that gives the filling its main flavor and body.
Turkey
Adds lean meat that bulks out the filling and balances the richer goose.
Fowl
Adds more meat to the layered filling, contributing to its overall texture and savor.
Egg whites
Brushed on the crust exterior to help it brown and seal during baking.
Butter
Poured into the baked pie through the hole, adding richness and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pour the melted butter through the hole after baking. Butter poured into a hot pie must be added as the crust and filling are set; pouring too early or too fast can leak through the crust or pool unevenly. Using a funnel helps it reach the filling and keeps the top intact.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pepper, clove, nutmeg, ham, egg, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, clove, nutmeg, ham, egg, butter. 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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