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Salmis De Canards Sauvages

A French dish of roasted wild duck served with a reduced wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Salmis De Canards Sauvages

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Roast the ducks

  1. Cover the ducks with mirepoix, wrap in paper, and roast on a spit.

  2. After 30 minutes, unwrap and check for doneness; it should be slightly rare.

  3. Carve the ducks for salmis and place the pieces in a saucepan with their juices to keep warm without boiling.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pot, combine the duck trimmings, red wine, shallot, garlic, and ground pepper; boil until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the mixture into a sauté pan, add the finishing sauce, and reduce until it reaches a salmis sauce consistency.

  3. Strain again, then finish with olive oil and lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Serve the duck pieces with the sauce, garnished with croutons, truffles, and sliced mushrooms.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Wild ducks
Provides the main meat, whose texture depends on careful cooking to stay moist.
Red bordeaux wine
Adds depth and acidity, and concentrates into a flavourful base when reduced.
Financial sauce
A reduced sauce that adds body and richness to the salmis sauce.
Shallot
Contributes a mild, aromatic sweetness to the reduced wine sauce.
Olive oil
Adds fat that gives the finished sauce a smoother mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich wine and duck flavours.

The step that matters

Check the ducks at 30 minutes and keep them slightly rare. Duck meat dries out and toughens quickly once overcooked, so pulling it at slightly rare keeps it juicy. Carefully keeping the carved pieces warm without boiling protects that tenderness.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, wine, shallot, clove, garlic, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, wine, shallot, clove, garlic, 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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