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To Ragout a Duck Whole

A whole duck roasted and stewed with onions, sage, thyme, and beef gravy, served with boiled green peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Ragout a Duck Whole

5 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. After having emptied and singed the duck, season it inside with pepper and salt, and truss it.

  2. Roast it before a clear fire for about 20 minutes, and let it acquire a nice brown colour.

Make the ragout

  1. Put it into a stewpan with sufficient well-seasoned beef gravy to cover it.

  2. Slice and fry the onions, and add these, with the sage-leaves and lemon thyme, both of which should be finely minced, to the stock.

  3. Simmer gently until the duck is tender.

  4. Boil about 1‑1/2 pint of young green peas separately and add them to the ragoût.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain, skim, and thicken the gravy with a little butter and flour.

  2. Boil it up, pour over the duck, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

455Calories
25 gProtein
29 gFat
24 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Duck100g cooked with skin337
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Sage1 tsp ground (0.7g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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 through slow simmering in the gravy.
Onions
Fried first to add sweetness and savoury depth to the gravy.
Young green peas
Add a sweet, fresh vegetable element and colour to the finished ragout.
Butter and flour (in the method)
Together form a roux that thickens the gravy to a smooth, coating consistency.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy after straining and skimming. Flour needs to be cooked into the hot liquid to thicken smoothly without lumps, and skimming first removes surface fat so the sauce does not turn greasy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, sage, pepper, thyme):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, sage, pepper, thyme. 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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