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Mock Goose

A stuffed mutton joint served as a mock goose, with onion and breadcrumb filling, baked and served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mock Goose

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the onions until tender.

  2. Remove the bone from the mutton using a sharp knife.

  3. Chop the boiled onions and mix with bread crumbs, sage, salt, and pepper.

  4. Stuff the mixture into the mutton joint.

Bake and make the gravy

  1. Bake the joint in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1.5 hours, basting often.

  2. Drain the fat from the baking tin and brown the sediment on the stove.

  3. Add salt, pepper, and stock to the browned sediment and boil.

  4. Strain the gravy into a boat and serve with the mock goose.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + sagetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the stuffing as it cooks.
Soft bread crumbs
Absorb juices from the onions and meat, keeping the stuffing moist.
Boiled spanish onions
Add sweetness and moisture to the stuffing as they soften.
Stock
Dissolves the browned sediment to make a flavourful gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the sediment on the stove. Browning the pan residue caramelises its sugars and proteins, giving the gravy depth of flavour and colour. Pale sediment makes a weak, thin gravy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, sage, 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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