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Roast Ducks

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,628 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Roast Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash and dry the ducks carefully.

  2. Make a stuffing with sage and onion, insert it into the ducks, and sew them up completely.

  3. Roast the ducks for about 1 hour, basting them well.

  4. A few minutes before serving, lightly dredge the ducks with flour to make them froth and look plump.

  5. Serve hot with brown gravy poured over the ducks.

  6. Accompany with currant jelly and green peas if in season.

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. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  4. Sage + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together204 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, onion, flour, currant):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, onion, flour, currant. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More roasted duck recipes

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