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Roast Ducklings

Roast ducklings stuffed with mashed potato, butter, cream, almonds, and seasonings, then roasted and served with a currant jelly gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Ducklings

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very quick oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Whip the mashed potatoes with butter and cream until creamy.

  2. Season with celery salt and white pepper.

  3. Add the chopped almonds.

  4. Stuff the cleaned and washed ducklings with the mixture without packing.

Truss and season

  1. Truss and bind the legs and wings with cotton twine.

  2. Place the ducklings on a roasting rack.

  3. Rub the breast with the split onion.

  4. Dust with pepper, salt, and flour.

Roast and baste

  1. Add boiling water to the pan.

  2. Cover.

  3. Roast in a very hot oven (400°F) for the first 15 minutes.

  4. Switch to a moderate oven (350°F).

  5. Cook covered for 10 minutes per pound.

  6. Uncover.

  7. Baste with gravy and butter.

  8. Dredge with flour.

  9. Brown.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Skim the fat from the gravy.

  2. Thicken with browned flour mixed with currant jelly.

  3. Serve in a gravy boat.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Adds body and moisture to the stuffing, keeping the duck interior tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the skin and gravy brown.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the stuffing mixture.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the stuffing.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity acidity that balances the rich duck fat.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat from the gravy. Ducks carry a lot of fat under the skin, and it renders into the pan. Leaving it in makes the gravy greasy and dulls its flavor, so it should be skimmed before thickening.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, cream, celery, almond, onion, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, cream, celery, almond, onion, 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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