Name: Roast Goose
Ingredients: 1 goose; ½ cup strong wine; flour; water; apple sauce

Why it works: Wine and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,207 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Roast Goose

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Parboil the goose until partially cooked.
Prepare a stuffing of your choice and stuff the goose.
Roast the stuffed goose at 350°F (175°C) until fully cooked.
Optionally, cover the goose with a paste of flour and water while baking, removing it before serving.
Serve the roast goose with 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.

Wine + appletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,207 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,078 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + appletop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,140 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wine + flourtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,435 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + saucetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together965 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).