Skip to main content
Main

Roast Duck

A roasted duck filled with a breadcrumb and onion mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and sage 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 ↓

Roast Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Sprinkle bread crumbs lightly with cold water.

  2. Fry the chopped onion in butter until golden.

  3. Add salt, pepper, thyme, and sage to the onion mixture.

  4. Mix well and combine with bread crumbs (or mashed potatoes).

Roast the duck

  1. Prepare the duck for roasting.

  2. Place the filling inside the duck.

  3. Roast the duck, ensuring plenty of water is in the pan.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Thyme + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 and fat that renders and flavours the dish as it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the onion butter and juices, giving the stuffing body and moisture.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth when fried golden in butter.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and adds richness to the filling.
Mashed potatoes
Optional starch that helps bind and soften the stuffing.

The step that matters

Ensuring plenty of water is in the pan. Water in the roasting pan keeps the pan from drying out and scorching, and its steam helps keep the duck moist while the fat renders.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, thyme, sage, onion, butter, egg):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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

More roasted duck recipes

with Stuffing 4with Head 3 See all 113 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes