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Duck with Orange-sauce

A roasted duck stuffed with bacon, onion, parsley, and orange rind, served with a savory orange sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Duck with Orange-sauce

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. Pluck the duck.

  2. Singe the duck.

  3. Wipe the duck with a wet towel.

  4. Draw the duck carefully.

  5. Chop the liver finely.

Stuff and truss

  1. Mix the chopped liver with the bacon, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and orange rind.

  2. Stuff the duck with the mixture.

  3. Truss the duck in shape.

  4. Tie a large thin slice of fat bacon over the breast.

  5. Place the duck in a dripping pan.

Roast

  1. Put the duck in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + orangetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together680 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that the stuffing and sauce accompany.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that bastes the bird and keeps the meat moist as it roasts.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the stuffing as it softens with the fat.
Orange rind
Contributes bright citrus aroma and oils that flavour the stuffing and duck.

The step that matters

Put the duck in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.. Duck has a thick layer of fat under the skin. A hot oven renders that fat so the skin crisps, while the meat stays juicy. Too cool an oven leaves the skin flabby and greasy.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, pepper. 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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