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Boiled Duck

A whole duck stuffed with a buttered shallot and pepper mixture, boiled with herbs and served with lemon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

Boiled Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Plunge the duck into boiling water to remove the feathers easily.

  2. Wipe and dry the duck inside and out.

  3. Chop the gizzard, heart, and liver finely.

  4. Mix the chopped organs with shallots, red pepper, and melted butter.

  5. Stuff the duck with the mixture.

  6. Make a bouquet with thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and cloves, and fasten it to the breast.

  7. Roll the duck in a wet cloth and tie it with a cord.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the duck in boiling salted water to cover and cook for 30 minutes or until thoroughly done.

  2. Remove the cloth and bouquet.

  3. Place the duck on a hot dish and garnish with lemon points.

  4. Serve with currant sauce or gravy.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

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

  4. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 and fully cooked during the boiling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing so the organs stay tender while cooking.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet onion-like flavour that mellows and blends into the stuffing.
Red pepper pod
Adds heat and a sharp, spicy aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Place the duck in boiling salted water to cover and cook for 30 minutes or until thoroughly done.. The water must return to a boil and stay covered over the duck, otherwise cooking is uneven. Cooking until fully done ensures the meat is safe to eat, and the stuffing needs the same heat to cook through.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, pepper, butter, thyme, parsley, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, pepper, butter, thyme, parsley, lemon. 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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