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Goose Pie

A pie made with roast goose meat, apple sauce, and gravy, optionally topped with a suet crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Goose Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gravy

  1. Cut the meat from the bones of the roast goose, including skin and any leftover stuffing.

  2. Boil the meat for 2 hours to create a strong gravy.

  3. Cool the gravy and remove any grease.

Assemble the pie

  1. In a tart dish, layer a thin layer of apple sauce, followed by the goose meat.

  2. Add another layer of apple sauce and pour in the gravy until the pie is full.

  3. Season the gravy with pepper and salt to taste.

  4. Optionally, replace apple sauce with boiled and minced onions.

Finish

  1. If serving hot, make a crust using shredded suet.

  2. If using raw goose, stew it for at least 1 hour before preparing the pie.

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

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

  2. Apple + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,026 recipes

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

  3. Apple + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Goose meat
Forms the main filling and gives the pie its savoury, meaty flavour.
Strong gravy
Adds moisture and rich savour that soaks into the filling.
Apple sauce
Adds gentle sweetness and acidity that balances the rich meat and gravy.
Suet
Provides fat for a short, tender crust when the pie is served hot.

The step that matters

Cooling and degreasing the gravy. Fat left in the gravy can separate and make the pie greasy or unset, so it should be cooled and skimmed before the pie is assembled.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sauce, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sauce, 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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