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Duck, Braised, with Turnips

A braised duck served with turnips and a savory gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Duck, Braised, with Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a small pan with bacon slices.

  3. Sprinkle parsley, chives, thyme, and lemon peel over the bottom.

  4. Place the duck in the pan and add carrot strips and the onion with cloves.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, then cover with stock broth and white wine.

Braise and glaze

  1. Turn the duck occasionally and simmer for 1 hour or until done.

  2. In a separate pan, fry turnip slices in butter until light brown, about 8-10 minutes.

  3. Remove the duck and keep it warm.

  4. Add the fried turnips to the stewpan after removing the duck.

  5. When the turnips are tender, strain the gravy and thicken with flour if needed.

Serve

  1. Serve the duck on a dish, pour hot gravy over it, and garnish with turnips.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the duck and the braising liquid.
Turnips
Brown in butter for sweetness and color, then soften in the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and helps the turnip slices brown in the pan.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the braising liquid and balances the rich fat.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the duck and turnips.

The step that matters

Simmer the duck until done and keep the liquid at a gentle simmer. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue soften slowly without toughening the meat. Turning the duck keeps the skin and meat evenly moistened by the braising liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, chive, thyme, lemon, carrot, clove, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, chive, thyme, lemon, carrot, clove, 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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