Name: Stuffing for Roast Goose, Etc.
Ingredients: 10 apples, pared, quartered, and cored; ¾ cup dried currants; ½ cup seeded raisins; 2 cups stale bread crumbs; 1 or 2 eggs (as needed); cinnamon to taste

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Stuffing for Roast Goose, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Steam the apples, currants, and raisins together until soft.
Beat the mixture thoroughly.
Mix in the stale bread crumbs.
Add eggs as needed to bind the mixture.
Season with cinnamon 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.

Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Break down when steamed to give the stuffing moisture, body, and natural sweetness.
Dried currants: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften in the steam.
Seeded raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften in the steam.
Stale bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the stuffing bulk and a soft, light structure.
Eggs: Set when heated to bind the crumbs and fruit into a cohesive mass.

The step that matters

Add eggs as needed to bind the mixture. Eggs set when heated and bind the mixture, but too many make it dense and rubbery. Add them gradually until the stuffing holds together without becoming wet.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, bread, egg, cinnamon):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Pearfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, bread, egg, cinnamon. 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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White Bread80 recipes

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Stuffing for Roast Goose, Etc.