Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Salmi of Duck or Game
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Cut the game into neat pieces; put them in the oven for five minutes to start the juices.
Put in a saucepan one tablespoonful of butter, one half pound of bacon or salt pork cut into dice, one tablespoonful each of chopped onion and carrot, twelve peppercorns, one saltspoonful each of salt, thyme, and sage, and any coarse pieces of the game.
Cover with a greased paper and let cook to a glaze.
Add a tablespoonful of flour, and let it brown.
Make the sauce
Add two cupfuls of stock; simmer for thirty minutes.
Strain.
Add one quarter cupful of Madeira and the pieces of game; cover and let simmer another thirty minutes.
If cooked game is used for the salmi, simmer for ten minutes only after the pieces are added to the sauce.
Finish and serve
Add truffles a few minutes before it is removed from the fire.
Garnish with croutons and truffles.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Bacon | 1 slice cooked (8g) | 43 |
| Salt | 1 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.
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.
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Game (in the method)
- Provides the main meat, which is browned and then simmered in the sauce until tender.
- Bacon
- Its fat and salty flavour build the savoury base for the sauce.
- Flour
- Browned in the fat, it thickens the stock into a body-rich sauce.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid that carries the flavour and becomes the sauce.
- Madeira
- Adds sweetness and depth as it reduces into the sauce.
The step that matters
Browning the flour. Cooking flour in the fat until it turns nutty develops flavour and colour and removes raw starch taste; stopping early leaves a pasty, floury sauce, while going too far gives a bitter edge.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.