Why it works: Apple and turnip work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 171 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Roast Goose
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick, draw, and truss the goose, removing all stub feathers and singeing off any long hairs.
Wipe the inside of the goose and fill it with stuffing.
Roast and serve
Hang the goose before a hot, clear fire and roast for about 1.5 hours.
Serve hot with strong beef gravy and apple sauce.
Optionally, serve with mashed turnips to balance the richness.
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.
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Apple + turniptop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Beef + turniptop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,940 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Sauce + turniptop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Beef + appletop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + saucetop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,650 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 rich fat that renders during roasting.
- Stuffing
- Fills the cavity, adding moisture and flavour as the goose cooks.
- Strong beef gravy
- Adds savoury depth and moisture to balance the rich, fatty meat.
- Apple sauce
- Adds acidity and sweetness that cut through the richness of the goose.
The step that matters
Roasting the goose before a hot fire. Goose has a thick layer of fat under the skin. Enough heat lets that fat render out so the skin crisps, while the meat stays juicy rather than greasy.
Swap the turnip
The recipe marks turnip as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, sauce):
- Tomatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Turnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, sauce. 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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