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Roasted Goose, and Apple Sauce

Roasted goose served with apple sauce made from boiled apples, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Roasted Goose, and Apple Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the goose

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Stuff the goose with sage, onion, and bread crumbs seasoned with pepper and salt.

  3. Fasten the goose tightly at the neck and rump.

  4. Cover the breast with buttered writing paper.

Roast and serve

  1. Start roasting the goose at a distance from the fire, gradually moving it closer while basting frequently.

  2. When the breast begins to rise, remove the paper and continue roasting until browned.

  3. Serve the goose with gravy and apple sauce.

Make the apple sauce

  1. For apple sauce, boil peeled and cored apple quarters with cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, and a little water until tender.

  2. Remove spices and lemon peel before serving.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Goose
Provides the rich meat and fat that form the main dish.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the paper covering the breast, aiding gentle browning.
Boiling apples
Break down when simmered to form a soft, sweet, tart sauce.
French bread crumbs
Absorb fat and juices in the stuffing, keeping it moist and tender.

The step that matters

Start roasting at a distance from the fire. Gentle heat at first lets the fat render slowly and the meat cook through; moving the goose closer later crisps and browns the skin without drying the meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, bread, pepper, butter, apple, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, pepper, butter, apple, cinnamon, clove. 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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