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Braised Duck

A roasted duck braised with stock, wine, herbs, and vegetables, served with a thickened gravy and fried turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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. Sprinkle parsley, thyme, and lemon peel over the bottom of the pan.

  4. Place the duck in the pan and add carrot strips and the onion.

  5. Season the duck with pepper.

Braise

  1. Pour stock broth and white wine over the duck.

  2. Baste the duck frequently and simmer for 1 hour or until done.

Make the gravy and serve

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

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

  3. Add the fried turnips to the pan.

  4. Once the turnips are tender, strain the gravy and thicken it with a little flour.

  5. Serve the duck on a dish, pour hot gravy over it, and 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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the duck and the braising liquid.
Stock broth
Provides moisture for braising and forms the base of the gravy.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the braising liquid.
Turnips
Browning in butter adds sweetness and color, and they soften as the gravy cooks.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained braising liquid into a gravy.

The step that matters

Basting and simmering the duck. Simmering gently with frequent basting keeps the meat moist while collagen slowly breaks down. Boiling hard would toughen the meat and dry out the skin.

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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