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Goose Pie

A savory pie made with goose, fowl, bacon, tongue, giblets, and a gelatinous gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Goose Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the tongue and cut it into finger-sized slices.

  2. Lay the bacon slices flat and season with onion, marjoram, thyme, mushrooms, and parsley.

  3. Layer the tongue slices on top of the bacon and season with salt, pepper, allspice, and mace.

  4. Place the fowl fillets on top, roll everything into the shape of a goose, and tie tightly with string.

Make the jelly

  1. Blanch the giblets, place them in a basin with the goose bones and 2 quarts of strong gravy, and boil.

  2. Prepare a raised pie crust on a large dish and fill it with the cooled goose and gravy, which will form a jelly.

  3. Remove the fat from the surface of the jelly and pour the clearest jelly over the top of the pie.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cut the giblets into pieces and season with salt and pepper, then place them in a deep dish.

  2. Cover the giblets with pie paste, brush with egg yolk, and bake for 1.5 hours at 350°F (175°C).

Make the giblet gravy

  1. Skim the giblet liquor free of fat, thicken it with flour and butter or flour and water, and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Geese
Form the main body of the pie, providing rich meat and flavorful juices.
Yorkshire fowls
Add tender meat and extra juices that enrich the filling.
Fat bacon
Renders fat that bastes the meat and adds moisture and savory flavor.
Tongue
Adds dense, meaty texture and rich flavor to the layered filling.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the crust, it promotes browning and a glossy finish.
Flour
Thickens the giblet liquor into a smooth, body-rich gravy.

The step that matters

Remove the fat from the jelly. Fat left on the surface of the jelly makes the set filling greasy and cloudy, so skimming it lets the clear jelly set firm and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, marjoram, thyme, mushroom, parsley, pepper, allspice):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, marjoram, thyme, mushroom, parsley, pepper, allspice. 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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