Ingredients for the Known Ground reconstruction
Ingredient amounts shown for 8 servings.
Known Ground reconstruction
- 1young gosling, 8 to 10 pounds
- 1 lbyellow onions, unpeeled
- 1 lbsoft bread crumbs, soaked and squeezed dry
- 1 ozfresh sage, finely chopped
- 1 tspground nutmeg
- 2 tspkosher salt
- 1/4 cupwater, Apple sauce
- 1 tbspsugar, Apple sauce
Apple sauce
- 4tart apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
Known Ground reconstruction — not personally tested
Escoffier's historical formula specifies gosling directly.
The source’s one-pound onion quantity and equal bread weight are retained at a smaller home scale suitable for an 8-to-10-pound gosling; stuffing and bird are temperature-checked separately.
Instructions
1. Bake the unpeeled onions at 375°F until tender. Cool, peel, chop, and mix with an equal weight of soaked bread, sage, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
2. Stuff the gosling loosely and truss. Roast at 350°F until the thickest meat and stuffing center reach 165°F (74°C), draining excess fat as needed.
3. Simmer the apples with water until soft and mash with only enough sugar to make them barely sweet.
4. Rest the gosling and serve with its defatted gravy and apple sauce separately.
Historical formula
Escoffier bakes one pound of unpeeled onions, then peels and chops them and adds an equal weight of soaked pressed bread, one ounce chopped sage, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. He stuffs and roasts the gosling, surrounds it with somewhat-fat gravy, and serves slightly sweetened stewed apples separately.
Source note
Source-preserving summary from Auguste Escoffier, *A Guide to Modern Cookery* (1907), a public-domain English edition. Source location: No. 1723, p. 532; 1903 pp. 869–870.
Published after editorial review
Last revised 8/21/2026. Evidence and limitations should be interpreted as described in the article.
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