Why it works: Onion and sage 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 ↓
Gravy for Roast Goose
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the giblets with the sliced onion, herbs, sage leaves, and black peppercorns in hot fat until browned.
Add 1 quart of common brown stock and boil for 2 to 3 hours.
Strain the mixture and add more stock to reach the desired quantity.
Season and thicken with 1 teaspoon of roux per pint.
If desired, add a glass of claret or port and reheat without boiling.
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.
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Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,628 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Giblets
- Browning them in hot fat builds the deep, savoury flavour the gravy is based on.
- Common brown stock
- Forms the liquid base of the gravy and carries its flavour.
- Roux
- Flour and fat cooked together thicken the gravy as it heats.
The step that matters
Thicken with roux. Roux thickens by starch swelling in the hot liquid. Add it to a simmering gravy and stir well, or it can clump and leave the texture uneven.
“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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