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Salmi of Duck or Game

Salmi of Duck or Game is a savory stew made with game pieces, butter, salt pork, onion, carrot, herbs, flour, stock, Madeira, and garnished with croutons and truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmi of Duck or Game

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 game

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the game pieces in the hot oven for 5 minutes to start the juices.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the diced salt pork, onion, and carrot.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.

  4. Stir in the salt, sage, bay leaf, and peppercorns.

  5. Add the flour. Let it brown.

  6. Pour in the brown stock.

  7. Cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  8. Strain the sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the Madeira and the pieces of game.

  2. Cover. Cook slowly for 40 minutes.

  3. If using cooked game, simmer for only 10 minutes after adding it to the sauce.

  4. Garnish with croutons and truffles.

  5. Add the truffles 5 minutes before serving.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + sagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together480 recipes

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Pork + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  5. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Game
Forms the main meat of the stew, becoming tender during slow simmering in the sauce.
Butter
Carries the flavor of the vegetables and helps the flour brown for the sauce.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory depth that flavors the sauce as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a body-rich sauce once it has browned.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, providing savory depth.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic complexity to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Let the flour brown before adding the stock. Browning the flour in fat develops a nutty, deeper color and flavor. Adding stock too early leaves the sauce pale and tasting of raw flour.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pork, onion, carrot, flour, truffle):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pork, onion, carrot, flour, truffle. 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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