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Goose a LA Mode

A roasted goose stuffed with tongue, fowl, ham, and a rich ragout of beef gravy, wine, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Goose a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the goose

  1. Skin and bone the goose.

  2. Boil and peel the dried tongue and fowl.

  3. Season the tongue and fowl with pepper, salt, and beaten mace, then roll them around the tongue.

  4. Lay the tongue and fowl on the goose, with slices of ham in between.

  5. If desired, add beef marrow between the tongue and fowl, and between the fowl and goose.

  6. Place everything in a pan that fits snugly.

Stew and make the ragout

  1. Add 2 quarts of beef gravy, the bones of the goose and fowl, sweet herbs, and an onion.

  2. Cover and stew slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Remove the goose, skim off the fat, and strain the gravy.

  4. Stir in red wine, ketchup, chopped veal sweetbread, truffles, mushrooms, morels, butter rolled in flour, pepper, and salt.

  5. Stew the goose for an additional 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the goose with the ragout poured over it, garnished with lemon.

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

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

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Beef + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Goose
Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the stuffing and becoming tender during slow stewing.
Beef gravy
Provides the liquid base for slow stewing, adding savory depth and moisture to the meat.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour-coated butter thickens the strained gravy into a smooth, glossy ragout.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the sauce.
Truffles
Contribute a concentrated earthy aroma to the ragout.
Veal sweetbread
Adds a tender, rich texture to the ragout.

The step that matters

Skimming and straining the gravy before adding the wine and thickener. Removing fat and solids leaves a clear, lighter gravy, so the flour-butter thickening sets smoothly rather than greasy or lumpy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, ham, beef, onion, red wine, ketchup, veal):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, ham, beef, onion, red wine, ketchup, veal. 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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