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Roast Wild Duck

A roasted wild duck seasoned with butter, flour, onion, sea salt, and lemon, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Wild Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and roast

  1. Twist each leg at the knuckle and rest the claws on each side of the breast.

  2. Roast the duck before a hot fire for 5 minutes without basting to keep the gravy in.

Baste and finish

  1. Baste plentifully with butter after the first 5 minutes.

  2. Dredge lightly with flour a few minutes before serving.

  3. Baste well a few minutes before serving.

  4. Baste with hot water mixed with an onion and a little salt to remove any fishy taste.

  5. Baste with butter to remove any fishy taste.

Serve

  1. Serve with a good gravy or orange gravy and a cut lemon.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Wild duck
The main protein, whose rich fat renders and keeps the meat moist as it roasts.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the skin brown and keeps the surface from drying out.
Flour
Dusted lightly on the bird, it helps the skin brown and crisp.
Onion
Flavours the basting liquid with a mild, savoury aroma.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity and aroma when squeezed over the cooked meat.

The step that matters

Hold off basting for the first 5 minutes. Opening the oven or spooning liquid over the bird early lets heat and juices escape, which slows the skin from setting and browning. Waiting until the first 5 minutes are up keeps the juices in and gives a crisper surface.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, onion):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, onion. 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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