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To Roast a Pair of Ducks

A method for roasting ducks, stuffed with sage and onion, served with gravy, orange sauce, and side dishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast a Pair of Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ducks

  1. After the ducks are drawn, wipe out the inside with a clean cloth, and prepare your stuffing.

  2. Mince very fine some green sage leaves, and twice their quantity of onion, which should first be parboiled, and add a little butter, and a seasoning of pepper and salt.

  3. Mix the whole very well, and fill the crops and bodies of the ducks with it, leaving a little space for the stuffing to swell.

  4. Reserve the livers, gizzards, and hearts to put in the gravy.

  5. Tie the bodies of the ducks firmly round with strings, which should be wetted or buttered to keep them from burning, and put them on the spit before a clear brisk fire.

Roast and make the gravy

  1. Baste them first with a little salt and water, and then with their own gravy, dredging them lightly with flour at the last.

  2. Roast for about an hour.

  3. After boiling the livers, gizzards and hearts, chop them, and put them into the gravy; having first skimmed it, and thickened it with a little browned flour.

  4. Prepare a small tureen of onion sauce with chopped sage leaves.

  5. Serve the sauce with the ducks.

  6. Accompany with stewed cranberries and green peas, if in season.

Roast the canvas-back ducks

  1. Roast canvas-back ducks in the same manner, omitting the stuffing.

  2. Roast for about three quarters of an hour.

  3. Serve with currant jelly and heaters under the plates.

  4. Add a little cayenne to the gravy, and a large wine glass of claret or port.

Roast the wild ducks and make orange sauce

  1. Parboil other wild ducks and teal with a large carrot inside their bodies.

  2. Throw away the carrot, and lay them in fresh water.

  3. Roast for about half an hour.

  4. Make orange sauce by boiling in a little water two large sweet oranges cut into slices, having first removed the rind.

  5. When the pulp is all dissolved, strain and press it through a sieve.

  6. Add to it the juice of two more oranges, and a little sugar.

  7. Serve the sauce either warm or cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

76Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
18 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sweet Orange1 medium (131g)62
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
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 Eliza Leslie. 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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Orange + sagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Oranges
Provide sweetness and acidity to the sauce, with juice and pulp for flavour.
Sage
Adds a savoury, aromatic herbal flavour to the stuffing and onion sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy and helps brown the skin of the ducks.

The step that matters

Roasting before a clear brisk fire. A hot, steady fire browns the skin and renders fat without drying the meat. Basting with salt water and then the ducks' own gravy keeps the surface moist and adds colour, while wetted or buttered strings stop them scorching.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Orangethe original
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, 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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