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 ↓
Vegetable Goose
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Trim the marrow and cut it in half lengthwise, removing the seeds.
Parboil the onions and chop them finely.
Fill and bake
Mix the chopped onions with the other ingredients and fill the marrow halves.
Put the two halves together, brush with butter, and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.
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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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,628 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Vegetable marrow
- Forms the edible shell that holds the filling and cooks until tender.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and moisture to the filling as they soften and cook.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and give the filling a soft, crumbly body.
- Egg
- Binds the filling together and sets as it bakes, holding its shape.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the outside brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Parboil the onions. Parboiling softens the onions and mellows their sharp raw flavor. It also removes some water, so the filling is less likely to turn soggy or loose when baked.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, bread, butter, egg, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, butter, egg, pepper. 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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