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Roast Ducklings, Hot Apple Sauce

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Watercress and leek share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Roast Ducklings, Hot Apple Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Draw the ducklings and keep the livers, gizzards, hearts, and necks.

  2. Singe the birds and place a cleaned leek inside each duckling.

  3. Twist the legs over the drumsticks and spread the feet out on the back.

  4. Cut the pinions of the wings off at the first joint, leaving two on each bird.

  5. Fold the wings neatly by the side of the bird.

  6. Pass a skewer through one wing, then through the body, and out through the other wing.

  7. Tie the ends of the skewer with string, securing the neck skin as well.

  8. Melt the butter and pour some over the breasts of the birds.

  9. Roast the ducklings in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes, basting continually.

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. Watercress + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Watercress + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Leek + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + leektop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together848 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, watercress, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, watercress, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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