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Seared Duck Breast with Pinot Noir Sauce

Duck and Pinot Noir are a classic combination. Look for Muscovy duck breasts for this recipe; they are generally larger and have a lower fat-to-meat ratio than the breasts of other duck varieties. Jars of demi-glace are sold in specialty-food stores. Serve the duck with our Potato and Apple Galette plus Savoy Cabbage and Turnips (see related recipes at left), and pour your best Pinot Noir.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,171 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mushroom + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together12,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Shiitake + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Onion + shiitaketop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, butter, shiitake, mushroom, chicken):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, butter, shiitake, mushroom, chicken. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).