Why it works: Sherry and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 685 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sherry + olivetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together685 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Meat + olivetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,167 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).
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Meat + sherrytop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together505 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Meat + saucetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,166 recipes
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Olive + saucetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together4,434 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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