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 the duck and onions
Pluck the duck and cut it into joints.
Peel the button onions and soak them in cold water.
Braise the duck
In a saucepan, melt the butter and fry the duck pieces until browned quickly.
Once the duck is browned, add the onions and enough boiling water to cover.
Season with salt, pepper, and the bouquet of herbs, then let it simmer for one hour.
Make the croutons and serve
Cut the stale bread into heart-shaped pieces, place them on a baking pan, and brown them in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
When the duck is done, remove the bouquet of herbs, pour the salmi onto a dish, garnish with the croutons, 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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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).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 slow simmering in liquid.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the duck, promoting browning and adding rich flavour to the sauce.
- Button onions
- Add sweetness and aroma as they cook slowly in the simmering liquid.
- Stale bread
- Becomes crisp croutons in the oven, adding a dry, crunchy contrast to the stew.
The step that matters
Browning the duck pieces quickly in butter. Searing the surface quickly over strong heat creates browned flavour through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or cooking slowly would steam the meat instead, leaving a pale, less flavourful stew.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Potatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, 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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