Why it works: Mallard duck and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 363 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-heptenal, which smells green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Pluck and singe the ducks, then split them down the back.
Remove the back and breastbones.
Lay the ducks skin-side down in a pan.
Season and broil
Season with salt, pepper, and olive oil, then marinate for 15 minutes.
Broil the ducks until rare.
Serve
Serve with Maitre d'Hotel butter and garnish with watercress.
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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Mallard duck + olivetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together363 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
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Pepper + olivetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,398 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
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Pepper + watercresstop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together983 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Olive + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,128 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Olive + watercresstop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together638 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mallard ducks
- Provide the meat that is cooked, with the rich flavor of the dark, fatty skin.
- Olive oil
- Adds moisture and helps the seasoning cling to the skin while it broils.
- Maitre d'hotel butter
- Adds richness and a savory, herbed flavor to the cooked meat at serving.
The step that matters
Broil the ducks until rare. Duck breast turns tough and dry when overcooked, so it is best removed at rare. Broiling is fast and close to the heat, so the meat can pass from rare to overdone quickly. Checking early keeps the texture tender.
“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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