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Goose A-LA-mode

A roasted goose stuffed with a dried tongue and fowl, simmered in beef gravy with herbs, ham, wine, ketchup, sweetbread, truffles, mushrooms, morels, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 birds

  1. Clean, skin, bone and remove the fat from the goose.

  2. Boil the dried tongue, then peel it.

  3. Clean, skin, bone and remove the fat from the fowl.

  4. Season the fowl with pepper, salt, and beaten mace, then roll it around the tongue.

  5. Season the goose with pepper, salt, and beaten mace.

  6. Place the tongue and fowl inside the goose.

Stew

  1. Place the pot that holds the goose.

  2. Add beef gravy, sweet herbs and onion to the pot.

  3. Insert slices of ham or bacon between the fowl and goose.

  4. Cover the pot and stew slowly over low heat for 1 hour.

  5. Remove the goose from the pot.

  6. Skim off the fat from the gravy, then strain the gravy.

Make the ragoût and serve

  1. Add red wine, ketchup, sweetbread, truffles, mushrooms, morels and butter rolled in flour to the gravy.

  2. Adjust seasoning if needed.

  3. Return the goose to the pot, cover, and stew for an additional 30 minutes.

  4. Serve the goose with the ragoût poured over it.

  5. Garnish 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, holding the stuffing and cooking into the gravy.
Fowl
Wrapped around the tongue and set inside the goose, adding a second layer of meat.
Beef gravy
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the birds and becomes the base of the sauce.
Butter rolled in flour
Thickens the ragoût so it coats the meat and sweetbread.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the finished gravy.
Sweetbread
Adds a tender, rich texture to the ragoût.

The step that matters

Stew slowly over low heat. Gentle, low heat keeps the meat tender and prevents the liquid from boiling hard, which would toughen the proteins and reduce the gravy too quickly.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, beef, onion, ham, 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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