Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓
To Roast Ducks
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Pick, draw, and singe the ducks.
Cut off the heads and dip the feet in boiling water to remove the yellow skin.
Truss the ducks plump, turning the feet flat on the back.
Stuff the ducks as you would a goose.
Roast the ducks in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 hour.
Serve with gravy and apple sauce, and garnish with chopped parsley.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + appletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,026 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Parsley + appletop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together612 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Parsley + saucetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,693 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + saucetop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, parsley, sauce):
- Lemonfits better
- Limefits better
- Avocadofits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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