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Stewed Duck

A stew of roasted duck with beef gravy, onions, sage, mint, peas, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Stewed Duck

Why it works: Mint and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Stewed Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the duck

  1. Place the cut-up duck in a stew pan with the beef gravy or dripping.

  2. Add the chopped onions, sage, mint, pepper, and salt over the duck.

  3. Stew slowly for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the green peas, cover, and simmer for another 30 minutes until the peas are soft.

  2. Add the butter rolled in flour, increase the heat, and bring to a boil.

  3. Serve everything together.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mint + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + minttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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 as it stews slowly in the gravy.
Beef gravy or dripping
Supplies the liquid and fat that moisten the duck and carry the flavour of the stew.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour and butter thicken the cooking liquid into a smoother, richer sauce when boiled.
Green peas
Add sweetness and body, becoming soft as they simmer in the stew.

The step that matters

Bringing the butter and flour to a boil. Flour must be heated while the liquid boils to fully thicken the sauce and cook out its raw starch taste. Stirring it in well prevents lumps.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, sage, pepper, peas, butter, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, sage, pepper, peas, butter, flour. 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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