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Saute of Duck with Olives

A sautéed duck served with olives in a sauce of butter, flour, stock, orange juice, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,456 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Saute of Duck with Olives

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 duck

  1. Singe the duck.

  2. Draw the duck.

  3. Wash the duck.

  4. Steam the duck for 30 minutes.

  5. Season the duck with salt and pepper, brush it with melted butter, and roll it in flour.

  6. Quickly brown the duck in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  7. Remove the duck and cut it into portions.

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the minced onion lightly in butter.

  2. Add flour to the onion to form a roux.

  3. Moisten the roux with poultry stock.

  4. Boil the mixture and skim.

  5. Add the duck and olives to the sauce.

  6. Simmer until the duck is tender.

  7. Season the sauce.

  8. Finish the sauce with orange juice and port wine.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished 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. Olive + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 recipes

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

  2. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + orangetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through steaming and simmering in the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as a roux with the onion and stock, and helps the duck brown.
Poultry stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying flavour and body.
Melted butter
Adds richness and helps the duck skin brown in the oven.
Olives
Add a salty, briny note that balances the rich duck and sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Quickly brown the duck in a hot oven. A hot oven renders fat and browns the skin and surface quickly. Browning builds flavour, while a slow or cool oven leaves the skin pale and greasy.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, flour, onion, olive, port wine):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, flour, onion, olive, port wine. 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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