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Roast Ducks

Roast Ducks is a dish where ducks are stuffed with mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, and herbs, then roasted with butter and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ducks

  1. Pick, singe, draw, and remove the entrails, oil bag, crop, and pinions from the ducks.

  2. If the ducks are old or strong, parboil them in onions and water, then discard the water.

  3. Season the ducks with salt, pepper, butter, and flour.

Stuff and roast

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, sage, chopped onion, cayenne, celery seeds, parsley, and egg.

  2. Stuff the ducks with the mixture and place them in a baking pan.

  3. Add hot water and butter to the pan.

  4. Roast the ducks, basting often, for about 30 minutes or until cooked through.

  5. Dust with flour and allow to brown before serving.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the main meat that is cooked through and browned by roasting.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together around the ducks.
Irish potatoes
Add body and moisture to the stuffing as mashed potato.
Bread crumbs
Soak up juices and give the stuffing a soft, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the skin brown and the meat stay moist.

The step that matters

Roast the ducks, basting often. Duck has a thick layer of fat under the skin, and basting with the pan liquid and fat keeps the meat moist while the skin crisps and browns. Cooking until fully done matters for safety, so check that the meat is cooked through rather than relying on the time alone.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, bread, sage, pepper, celery, parsley, egg):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, bread, sage, pepper, celery, parsley, egg. 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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