Name: Canvas-back Duck
Ingredients: 1 cold canvas-back duck or any wild duck, previously roasted; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup port wine; 1 tablespoon currant jelly; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Port wine and currant work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 356 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Canvas-back Duck

Ingredients

1 cold canvas-back duck or any wild duck, previously roasted
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup port wine
1 tablespoon currant jelly
pepper to taste
coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Prepare

Divide the roasted duck into suitable pieces.
In a chafing dish, melt the butter over medium heat.

Make the sauce and finish

Add the port wine and currant jelly to the melted butter.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Cover the chafing dish and cook for 5 to 10 minutes.

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.

Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,499 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Port wine + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,804 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Roasted duck: Provides the meat that is reheated and coated in the warm sauce.
Port wine: Adds sweetness and body to the sauce as it simmers with the butter.
Currant jelly: Adds sweetness and gloss, and helps thicken the sauce slightly.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the sauce.