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Braised Duck

Braised duck with bacon, herbs, vegetables, and a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Braised Duck

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the duck

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a small pan with bacon slices.

  3. Add parsley, thyme, and lemon peel to the bottom of the pan.

  4. Place the duck in the pan.

  5. Add carrot strips and the onion with cloves.

  6. Season the duck with pepper.

  7. Cover the duck with stock broth and white wine.

Braise and make the gravy

  1. Baste the duck frequently.

  2. Simmer the duck for 1 hour or until done.

  3. In a separate pan, fry turnip slices in butter until light brown, about 8–10 minutes.

  4. Remove the duck from the pan and keep it hot.

  5. Remove the turnips and strain the gravy.

  6. Thicken the gravy with a little flour.

Serve

  1. Serve the duck on a dish.

  2. Pour the hot gravy over the duck.

  3. Garnish with turnips.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Is the main protein, cooked slowly in liquid until tender.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the duck and pan liquid.
Stock broth
Provides the braising liquid that keeps the duck moist and forms the gravy.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid and gravy.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the duck.
Turnips
Brown in butter, adding caramelized sweetness and color as a garnish.

The step that matters

Simmer the duck for 1 hour or until done. Duck is fatty and can turn tough or dry if overcooked, while undercooked meat is unsafe. Gentle simmering in liquid, with frequent basting, keeps the meat moist and lets the connective tissue soften evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, thyme, lemon, carrot, clove, pepper, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, thyme, lemon, carrot, clove, pepper, white wine. 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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