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Stewed Duck

A stew of duck pieces simmered in gravy, seasoned with salt and cayenne, thickened with rice and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Stewed Duck

Why it works: Pepper and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Stewed Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the duck

  1. Place the duck joints in a stew pan with the gravy and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  4. Reduce heat and let it stew gently for 45 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a small bowl, mix the ground rice with the port wine until smooth.

  2. Stir the rice mixture into the gravy and let it cook for an additional 7 to 8 minutes.

  3. Serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + port winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Rice + port winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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, which becomes tender through slow stewing in the gravy.
Good gravy
Forms the cooking liquid and carries the flavour of the stew.
Fine ground rice
Thickens the gravy as its starch gelatinises during simmering, giving a smoother body.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring the rice mixture into the gravy. Ground rice must be mixed smooth with the port first, then added to simmering liquid while stirring. Otherwise it clumps and forms lumps instead of thickening the gravy evenly.

“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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