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Roast Goose

Roast goose stuffed with mashed potato dressing, baked in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dress the goose 24 hours before cooking and soak it in salt water for 2 hours.

  2. Prepare a mashed potato dressing by mixing mashed potatoes with onion, butter, pepper, and salt.

  3. Fill the body of the goose with the dressing.

  4. Grease the goose all over with butter and dredge it with flour.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the goose in a pan with 1 pint of water.

  2. Baste the goose well and cook for 2 hours.

  3. Serve with onion 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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

What each ingredient does

Goose
The main protein; its fat renders during roasting and its meat cooks through over the long cook.
Mashed potatoes
Absorb juices from the bird and add moisture and body to the stuffing dressing.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the skin brown and gives the dressing richness.
Flour
Dusted on the skin to help it brown and crisp during roasting.

The step that matters

Basting the goose well during the 2-hour cook. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps the skin brown evenly, while the bird's own fat renders out. Neglecting it can leave the skin pale and dry.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, flour. 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.

More roast goose recipes

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