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Salmi, or Hash, of Ducks

A duck hash made by roasting duck, simmering in a sauce of cullis, Port wine, shallots, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmi, or Hash, of Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Roast the duck

  1. Roast the ducks until half cooked, then cut them into joints.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the gravy, cullis, Port wine, and shallots.

  2. Season the mixture with Cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, and garlic.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Strain the mixture over the duck pieces.

Simmer and serve

  1. Place the duck in a stewpot with boiling water and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

  2. Add lemon juice before serving.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the meat that becomes the hash, cooked first by roasting and then gently simmered.
Cullis
Adds a concentrated, rich body to the sauce that coats the duck pieces.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the sauce as it reduces when boiled.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet onion flavour that builds the base of the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the duck's fat.

The step that matters

Simmering the duck in boiling water. Duck is fatty and can turn tough or stringy if overcooked. A gentle simmer at a steady temperature keeps the meat tender while it absorbs the sauce, so the pieces stay intact rather than breaking down.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, port wine, shallot, pepper, clove, lemon):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, port wine, shallot, pepper, clove, lemon. 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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