Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Braised Duck
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the duck as you would for roasting.
Line the bottom of a pan with strips of salt pork or bacon.
Place the duck in the pan and sprinkle spices and onion juice over it.
Cook and serve
Baste the duck frequently while cooking.
Once done, remove the duck from the pan.
Thicken and strain the gravy, then serve.
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.
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 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 and fat that flavour the dish as it cooks.
- Salt pork or bacon
- Lines the pan and releases fat that keeps the duck moist and adds savoury flavour.
- Onion juice
- Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the duck and its gravy.
The step that matters
Baste the duck frequently while cooking. Spooning pan fat and juices over the duck keeps the surface moist as it cooks, helping prevent drying and encouraging even browning.
“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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