Name: Wild Duck
Ingredients: 1 wild duck; ½ cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 large onion; 1 tablespoon butter; red currant jelly

Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Wild Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Clean the duck and soak it in salt water for 30 minutes.
Dry the duck and place it in a baking pan.

Cook

Add a little boiling water and the onion to the pan.
Cook for 15 minutes.
Remove the duck and spread butter on it.
Bake for about 45 minutes.

Serve

Serve with red currant jelly.

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.

Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together258 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Butter + red curranttop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together495 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wild duck: Provides the meat that is cooked and served as the main dish.
Coarse sea salt: Seasons the duck through the salt-water soak before cooking.
Butter: Adds fat that enriches flavor and promotes browning on the duck's skin.
Red currant jelly: Adds sweetness and acidity that balances the rich flavor of the duck.