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Roast Duck

Roast Duck stuffed with mashed potatoes and onion, then baked and served with apple sauce and a giblet gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Roast Duck

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the duck

  1. Singe the duck well and wash it in salt and water.

  2. Stuff the duck with mashed potatoes, onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. Fill the breast and body with the potato mixture, then tie and skewer tightly.

  4. Dredge the duck with flour and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast and make gravy

  1. Roast in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for one hour, basting frequently.

  2. For gravy, add a little water to the pan with the chopped giblets and thicken with flour.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the rich meat and fat that form the main dish.
Mashed potatoes
Fill the cavity and add moisture and body to the stuffing as it cooks.
Flour
Coats the skin and later thickens the pan juices into gravy.
Giblets
Add savory meaty flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Basting during roasting. Regular basting spreads the rendered fat and pan juices over the skin, helping it brown and stay moist. Duck fat renders slowly, so the skin can turn out pale or greasy if neglected.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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