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Two Ducks a LA Daube

A braised duck dish with stock, sherry, onions, bacon, mace, and olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Two Ducks a LA Daube

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ducks

  1. Prepare the ducks by removing the gills and filling them with force‑meat.

  2. Place the ducks in a stewpan with a little stock and cook on a slow stove for about 10 minutes.

Braise

  1. Add 1 pint of good stock, the bones and giblets, ½ pint of sherry, onions, laggot, and mace.

  2. Cover the ducks with sheets of bacon and continue cooking on a slow stove for about 2 hours.

Glaze and serve

  1. Remove the ducks from the braise, dry them, and glaze them.

  2. Strain the braise, skim off the fat, and reduce it to a glaze.

  3. Add enough coulis for the desired sauce quantity and incorporate the prepared olives.

  4. Serve the sauce on a dish and place the ducks on top.

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

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

  2. Sherry + olivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together820 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Sherry + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 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

Ducks
Provide the main meat, which is slowly braised until tender.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid, building flavour in the sauce.
Onions
Release sweetness and body into the braising liquid as they cook slowly.
Olives
Add a briny, sharp note that contrasts with the rich duck and sauce.

The step that matters

Keeping the braise on a slow stove. Gentle, low heat lets the tough connective tissue in the duck break down slowly, keeping the meat tender rather than dry or stringy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, sherry, onion, olive):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sherry, onion, olive. 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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