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Sage-and-onion Stuffing for Geese, Ducks and Pork

A savory stuffing made with onions, sage, bread crumbs, butter, egg, salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sage-and-onion Stuffing for Geese, Ducks and Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the onions and place them in boiling water. Simmer for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the sage leaves to the boiling water for 1-2 minutes to reduce their rawness.

  3. Chop the onions and sage very finely.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped onions, sage, bread crumbs, butter, and the yolk of the egg. Mix well until the stuffing is ready for use.

  2. Season to taste.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Provide the bulk and mild sweetness of the stuffing once softened by simmering.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more savory texture.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together so it holds its shape.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, bread, butter, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, butter, pepper, egg. 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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