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To Roast Goose

A whole goose stuffed with sage, onion, bread crumbs, pepper, and salt, then roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

To Roast Goose

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Stuff the body of the goose with sage, onion, bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.

  2. Skewer the skin to prevent the stuffing from coming out.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the goose at 400°F (200°C).

  2. For a large goose, roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting regularly.

  3. Serve with gravy and apple sauce.

  4. For a green goose, roast for 45 minutes without onion, using only sage, bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.

  5. Serve with gravy and gooseberry 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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Sage + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Goose
Provides the main meat and rendered fat that keeps the bird moist and crisps the skin.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and moisture to the stuffing as it cooks inside the bird.
Bread crumbs
Soak up juices and fat from the bird, giving the stuffing body and a softer texture.
Sage
Contributes a savoury, herbal aroma that complements the rich flavour of goose.

The step that matters

Skewer the skin. Skewering the skin keeps the stuffing inside while the bird roasts. Goose skin holds a lot of fat, and pricking or securing it helps that fat render out evenly, so the skin crisps rather than trapping fat under it.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, pepper. 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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