Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Salmi of Duck
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Pluck the duck and cut it into joints as for fricassee.
Peel the button onions and soak them in cold water.
Cut the stale bread into heart-shaped pieces and brown them in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
Make the stew
In a saucepan, heat the butter and fry the duck pieces until browned.
Once the duck is browned, add the onions and enough boiling water to cover.
Season with salt, pepper, and the bouquet of herbs, then simmer for one hour.
Serve
When the duck is done, remove the bouquet of herbs, pour the dish onto a serving plate, garnish with the browned bread, and serve hot.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,676 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wild duck
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering.
- Butter
- Fat that browns the duck pieces, adding color and roasted flavor.
- Button onions
- Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the simmering liquid.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce.
The step that matters
Browning the duck in butter. Browning creates color and savory flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pieces crowded or pale at this stage will taste flat in the finished stew.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, flour, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, flour, 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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