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Braised Wild Duck

Braised Wild Duck is a dish of stuffed ducks simmered in gravy and served with the sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 ↓

Braised Wild Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare and stuff the ducks as for roasting.

  2. Heat the butter in a large frying pan.

  3. Fry each duck until browned, turning as needed.

Braise

  1. Transfer the ducks to a large saucepan.

  2. Pour in the heated gravy.

  3. Cover closely and stew gently for 1 hour or until the ducks are tender.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Place the ducks on a hot dish.

  2. Cover to keep warm.

  3. Let the gravy cool slightly to allow the grease to rise.

  4. Skim off the fat.

  5. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  6. Boil for 5 minutes.

  7. Skim again.

  8. Return the ducks to the gravy.

  9. Heat for an additional 5 minutes.

  10. Serve with a little gravy over the ducks and the rest in a separate dish.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sage + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Butter
Fat for browning the ducks, adding richness and savory flavor to the surface.
Gravy
Liquid that braises the ducks and forms the sauce, carrying flavor and moisture.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Fry each duck until browned. Browning builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction and renders some fat. Pale ducks give a flat-tasting gravy, and too much heat can scorch the butter and pan drippings.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, sage, pork, butter, 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.

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