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A Goose

A goose stuffed with bread crumbs or boiled potatoes, sage, onions, and salt, then roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,672 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick, draw, and singe the goose.

  2. Cut off the head and neck, and remove the feet and legs at the first joint, along with the wings.

  3. Skewer the remaining portions of the legs and wings to the sides.

Stuff and roast

  1. Mix the bread crumbs (or potatoes), sage, onions, and season with salt.

  2. Stuff this mixture into the breast and secure the skin of the neck.

  3. Cover the breast with greased paper for a short time.

  4. Roast the goose for 2 to 2.5 hours, basting as needed.

Serve

  1. Ensure the goose is thoroughly cooked and serve with gravy and 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Bread + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,672 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Sage + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Bread + sagetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned 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

Bread crumbs or boiled potatoes
Absorb juices and fill the cavity, giving the stuffing a soft, moist body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma that perfume the meat as it roasts.
Sage
Adds an earthy, aromatic flavour that suits rich goose meat.

The step that matters

Covering the breast with greased paper. Goose breast is thin and lean compared with the fatty legs, so it can dry out or overcook before the rest of the bird is done. A greased paper cover shields it from direct heat for a short time while the fat renders.

Flavor stand-ins for the sage

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

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Celerybetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

More roasted goose recipes

with Apple Dressing 4with Apple Sauce 3with Sage and Onions 3 See all 130 →

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