Why it works: Sherry and olive work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 820 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Duck and Olives
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the stock, reserving a little to blend with the cornstarch.
Add 2 tablespoons of sherry, Worcestershire sauce, and salt to the stock.
Add the pieces of duck and olives to the pot.
When heated and the sauce boils, stir in the cornstarch blended with the reserved cold stock.
Stir and boil for about 2 minutes, then serve.
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.
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Sherry + olivetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together820 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Meat + olivetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,485 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,568 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,167 recipes
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Meat + sherrytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together505 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold duck
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender as it heats in the sauce.
- Meat jelly or strong stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the flavour of the dish.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the stock into a glossy sauce when heated and boiled.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.
- Pitted olives
- Add salty, briny flavour that cuts through the richness of the duck.
The step that matters
Stir in the cornstarch only once the sauce boils. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to thicken fully. Adding it to a cool or lukewarm sauce, or stirring it in unblended, can leave lumps or a thin sauce.
“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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