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Ducks A-LA-mode

A roasted duck stuffed with forcemeat, baked and stewed in gravy with wine and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ducks A-LA-mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ducks

  1. Slit the ducks down the back and bone them carefully.

  2. Make a forcemeat by mixing the bread crumbs, bacon, parsley, thyme, lemon peel, shallots or onion, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and eggs.

  3. Stuff the ducks with the forcemeat and lard them with bacon on each side.

  4. Dredge the ducks with flour and place them in a Dutch oven to brown.

Stew and serve

  1. Transfer the ducks to a stew pan with gravy, red wine, lemon pickle, walnut ketchup, mushroom ketchup, browning sauce, anchovy, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Stew gently over low heat for one hour.

  3. Thicken the gravy and add truffles and morels before serving.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together when stuffed and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body and a tender texture.
Bacon
Adds fat and richness, keeping the lean duck moist as it cooks.
Flour
Dusting the ducks helps them brown and thickens the cooking liquid slightly.
Gravy
Forms the braising liquid that cooks the ducks gently and carries flavour.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Stew gently over low heat for one hour. A gentle simmer keeps the duck tender and the forcemeat set. Boiling vigorously toughens the meat and can break up the stuffing.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, thyme, lemon, shallot, pepper, egg, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, thyme, lemon, shallot, pepper, egg, 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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