Name: Broiled Canvas-back Duck, Delmonico Style
Ingredients: 1 canvas-back duck; 2 tablespoons salad oil; salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; juice of 1 lemon; ¼ teaspoon salt; a pinch of pepper

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiled Canvas-back Duck, Delmonico Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

Dress the duck and split it down the back.
Rub salad oil all over the duck and season with salt and pepper.

Broil and baste

Place the duck between the bars of a double gridiron and broil over a very hot fire for 12 minutes, starting with the inside facing the fire.
While broiling, melt the butter over gentle heat.
Mix the melted butter with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt, and a pinch of pepper.
Once the duck is broiled, place it on a hot dish and pour the melted butter mixture over it.
Serve hot immediately.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Canvas-back duck: Provides the main meat, which is cooked directly over high heat to brown and firm.
Salad oil: Coats the skin so it browns evenly and does not dry out under the broiler.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture when melted and spooned over the cooked duck.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich duck and butter sauce.

The step that matters

Broil over a very hot fire for 12 minutes, inside facing the fire first. High, direct heat browns the outside quickly while the interior cooks through. Too little heat leaves the skin pale and fatty, and turning the duck unevenly can leave parts underdone or dry.

“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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Broiled Canvas-back Duck, Delmonico Style