Name: To Roast Ducks
Ingredients: Ducks; 1-2 onions, chopped fine; Lemon juice; Ketchup; Wine; Coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Lemon and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

To Roast Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the ducks thoroughly.
Stuff the ducks with a mixture similar to chicken stuffing, adding the chopped onions.
Baste the ducks often while roasting.
Ensure the gravy is not oily; add a little lemon juice, ketchup, and wine to the gravy.
Serve with oysters.

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.

Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,646 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Onion + ketchuptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,997 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion + winetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + ketchuptop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,447 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).