Name: Stuffed Goose
Ingredients: 1 goose; 2 cups potatoes, boiled and mashed; ½ cup milk; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; Giblets (neck, pinions, liver, heart, gizzard) from the goose; 1 tablespoon flour

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stuffed Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Stuff the goose with the mashed potatoes mixed with milk, butter, pepper, and salt.
In a pot, stew the giblets in a little water until tender.
Thicken the giblet broth with butter and flour, and season with pepper and salt.
Remove all giblets except the liver and heart, mince them, and return to the gravy.
Serve the gravy alongside the roasted 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pepper, liver, flour):

Potatothe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pepper, liver, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.