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Fricasseed Duck

A duck fricassee with onion, celery, salt pork, Worcestershire sauce, served over mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fricasseed Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fricassee

  1. In a pot, combine the duck quarters and chopped onion.

  2. Cover with water and add more as it boils away.

  3. Stir in celery seed or chopped celery and salt pork.

  4. When nearly done, add Worcestershire sauce.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the fricassee in the center of a mound of mashed potatoes.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that enriches the cooking liquid.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the braising liquid as it softens.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds tangy, savory acidity that rounds out the flavor of the stew.

The step that matters

Keeping the duck covered with water. As the liquid boils away, the duck can dry out and toughen. Adding more water as needed keeps the meat moist so it stays tender during the slow simmer.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pork, sauce, potato, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pork, sauce, potato, 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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