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Stewed Duck and Peas

A stew of duck, bacon, onions, parsley, bay leaf, cloves, and peas simmered in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Stewed Duck and Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the duck

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the chopped bacon.

  2. Add the trussed duck and brown it on all sides.

  3. Sprinkle the flour over the duck and stir well.

Simmer

  1. Pour in the water and add the onions, parsley, bay leaf, and cloves.

  2. Bring to a simmer and cook until the duck is tender.

  3. Add the peas and simmer until cooked through.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the duck, discard the trussing strings, and strain the sauce.

  2. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, then serve with the duck.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the pan as it renders and browns.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the duck and carries flavor into the sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce as it is stirred into the fat.
Onions
Soften during simmering, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
Peas
Add sweetness and a tender texture to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Browning the duck on all sides. Browning builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction, which only happens on dry, hot surfaces. Crowding the pan or skipping sides leaves the meat pale and the sauce flat.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, onion, parsley, clove, 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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