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Duck, Roast

A whole duck stuffed with onion, sage, bread crumbs, and minced liver, then roasted and served with gravy and apple sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Duck, Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Pluck, singe, and empty the duck if not prepared by the poulterer.

  2. Scald and skin the feet, then twist the feet around the back.

  3. Cut off the head, neck, and pinions at the first joint.

Make the stuffing

  1. Pour boiling water over the chopped onions and cover for 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the onions and mix with bread crumbs, minced liver, sage, pepper, and salt.

  3. Stuff the mixture inside the duck.

Roast and serve

  1. Let the duck hang for 1-2 days to tenderize the flesh.

  2. Roast the duck over a brisk, clear fire, basting often.

  3. Dredge the duck with flour to create a frothy appearance.

  4. Serve with brown gravy and apple sauce.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Sage + livertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  4. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Forms the main body of the dish; its fat renders during roasting and keeps the meat moist.
Onions
Add moisture and mild sweetness to the stuffing as they soften after the hot water soak.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices from the onions and liver, helping the stuffing hold together inside the duck.
Duck liver
Adds rich, savory depth to the stuffing.
Powdered sage
Contributes a savory, aromatic herbal flavor to the stuffing.
Flour
Dusted on the skin, it helps the surface brown and crisp during roasting.

The step that matters

Roast over a brisk, clear fire while basting often. High, steady heat renders the duck's fat so the skin crisps, while frequent basting keeps the surface from drying and promotes even browning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, bread, liver, pepper, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, liver, pepper, flour. 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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