Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Roast Duck Stuffing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stuffing
Mince the onions.
Parboil the duck liver and chop it very fine.
Combine the liver, minced onions, bread crumbs, and seasonings.
Roast and serve
Roast the duck for one hour, basting often.
Serve with good brown gravy made in the pan and with apple sauce or currant jelly.
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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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Liver + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together229 recipes
Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).
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Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,628 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + livertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,420 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onions
- Add moisture and savory sweetness as they soften through the stuffing.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid from the onions and liver, giving the stuffing body and a soft texture.
- Duck liver
- Adds rich, savory depth and a firm, fine-textured meaty flavor to the stuffing.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, bread, sage, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against liver, bread, sage, 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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