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Roasted Goose, and Apple Sauce

Roasted goose served with apple sauce.

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

Prepare the goose

  1. Preheat the oven and prepare the goose by stuffing it with sage, onion, and bread crumbs seasoned with pepper and salt.

  2. Fasten the goose tightly at the neck and rump, and cover the breast with buttered paper.

Roast

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

  2. When the breast begins to rise, remove the paper and ensure the goose is well dredged and browned.

Make the apple sauce and serve

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

  2. Remove the spices and lemon peel before serving the apple sauce.

  3. Serve the goose with good gravy and apple sauce.

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
Forms the main roasted dish; its fat renders and bastes the meat as it cooks.
French bread crumbs
Absorb juices from the stuffing, keeping the filling moist and lightly textured.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the paper covering the breast, supporting even browning.
Boiling apples
Break down into a soft purée that gives the sauce body and natural sweetness.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the apple sauce.

The step that matters

Removing the paper and browning the breast. Once the breast begins to rise, the paper must come off so the skin can dry and brown. Leaving it on steams the surface, and the goose stays pale and soft instead of crisp.

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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