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Goose, Roast

Roasted goose with onion stuffing, basted in fat, served with gravy and apple sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Goose, Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare and truss the goose.

  2. Stuff the body with onion stuffing.

Roast

  1. Baste the goose well with hot fat.

  2. Roast or bake for 2 to 2½ hours, depending on size and age.

  3. Baste frequently and dredge with flour if the surface is not well browned when three-quarters cooked.

Serve

  1. Remove the trussing string and serve on a hot dish.

  2. Serve the gravy and apple sauce in sauceboats.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Onion + appletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 recipes

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

  3. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Beef + appletop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,364 recipes

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

  5. Beef + saucetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,650 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

What each ingredient does

Goose
Provides the main meat, with rendered fat that bastes and crisps the skin as it roasts.
Onion stuffing
Fills the cavity, flavouring the meat and moistening it from within as it cooks.
Beef stock or gravy
Adds savoury liquid and body to the sauce served alongside the roast.
Apple sauce
Adds sweet-tart acidity that balances the rich, fatty meat.
Flour (in the method)
Dredged over the surface to help the skin brown when it is not browning well.

The step that matters

Dredge with flour only if browning is poor. Flour browns quickly in hot fat, so adding it too early can scorch or burn, while adding it too late leaves the skin pale. Checking colour at three-quarters of the roast time lets you judge when it is needed.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, beef, 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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