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Salmi of Duck or Game

A savory stew of game pieces in butter, salt pork, onion, carrot, sage, bay leaf, peppercorns, flour, brown stock, and Madeira, with truffles and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmi of Duck or Game

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the game pieces in the hot oven for 5 minutes to start the juices.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  4. Add the diced salt pork, onion, and carrot; cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.

  5. Stir in the salt, sage, bay leaf, and peppercorns.

  6. Add the flour and let it brown, then pour in the brown stock.

Make the salmi

  1. Cook slowly for 30 minutes, then strain the sauce.

  2. Stir in the Madeira and add the game pieces.

  3. Cover and cook slowly for 40 minutes.

  4. Add the truffles 5 minutes before serving and garnish with croutons.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + sagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together480 recipes

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Pork + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  5. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Game
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful as it simmers in the sauce.
Butter
Carries the flavour of the aromatics and helps begin browning the base.
Salt pork
Renders fat and savoury flavour into the butter as the base cooks.
Flour
Browns in the fat and thickens the brown stock into a sauce.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid body of the sauce that the game cooks in.
Madeira
Adds a sweet, fortified wine note that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. The flour must brown in the fat before the stock goes in, since raw flour tastes pasty and browned flour adds nutty colour and flavour to the sauce. Stir steadily so it does not scorch.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pork, onion, carrot, flour, truffle):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pork, onion, carrot, flour, truffle. 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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