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Goose Pie

A baked vegetable marrow stuffed with onions, breadcrumbs, sage, egg, and milk, then baked or covered with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Goose Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the vegetable marrow until soft enough to pierce with a fork.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped onions, bread crumbs, sage, salt, pepper, beaten egg, and a little milk.

  3. Scoop out the seeds from the marrow and fill it with the stuffing.

Bake

  1. Bake the stuffed marrow, basting occasionally with butter or olive oil.

  2. Alternatively, place the stuffed marrow in a pie dish, cover with pastry, and bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C).

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

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Vegetable marrow
Forms the edible shell that holds the stuffing and softens as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds its shape when baked and sliced.
Whole meal bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, giving the stuffing a light, cohesive texture.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften in the stuffing.
Powdered sage
Adds a herby, aromatic flavour that defines the stuffing.

The step that matters

Boil the marrow until just pierceable. Marrow that is too firm will not soften through in the oven, while overcooked marrow becomes watery and collapses, letting the stuffing spill out and the filling turn soggy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sage, pepper, egg, milk, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sage, pepper, egg, milk, 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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