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A Goose A-LA-mode

A stewed goose stuffed with a tongue and fowl, simmered in beef gravy with herbs, wine, ketchup, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 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 ↓

A Goose A-LA-mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the goose

  1. Clean, skin, and bone the goose, removing excess fat.

  2. Boil and peel the dried tongue.

  3. Prepare the fowl in the same way as the goose.

  4. Season the fowl with pepper, salt, and beaten mace.

  5. Roll the fowl around the tongue.

  6. Season the goose similarly.

  7. Place the tongue and fowl inside the goose.

Stew

  1. In a pot that fits the goose, add 2 quarts of beef gravy, sweet herbs, and an onion.

  2. Place slices of ham or bacon between the fowl and goose.

  3. Cover and stew slowly over low heat for 1 hour.

  4. Remove the goose.

  5. Skim off the fat.

  6. Strain the gravy.

  7. Add red wine, ketchup, sweetbread, truffles, mushrooms, morels, and butter to the gravy.

  8. Adjust seasoning if needed.

  9. Return the goose to the pot.

  10. Cover and stew for an additional 30 minutes.

Serve

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

  2. 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, carrying the stuffing and becoming tender during slow stewing.
Beef gravy
Provides the moist cooking liquid and rich savoury base for the stew and ragoût.
Butter
Rolled in flour, it thickens the gravy and adds richness and a glossy texture.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy as it simmers.
Truffles
Contribute a concentrated earthy aroma to the ragoût.
Veal sweetbread
Adds a tender, delicate texture and rich flavour to the ragoût.

The step that matters

Stew slowly over low heat. Gentle, low heat lets the tough goose meat become tender and keeps the gravy from reducing too fast or scorching, while the connective tissue slowly breaks down into moist, soft meat.

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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