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Stewed Duck

A duck stewed with gravy, port wine, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Stewed Duck

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Duck

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.

Prepare the duck

  1. Clean the duck and draw the duck.

  2. Boil the giblets with 1 onion, a little salt, a dust of cayenne, and 1½ cups of good gravy or stock.

Roast

  1. Place the duck in a roasting pan.

  2. Cover the duck with melted dripping.

  3. Roast in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C), basting constantly until half done.

  4. Remove the duck.

  5. Cut the duck into neat joints.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. Strain the boiled gravy back into the saucepan.

  2. Thicken the gravy with the creme‑de‑riz slaked in the port wine.

  3. Add the duck pieces to the sauce.

  4. Cook gently for 10 to 15 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Port wine + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Port wine + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Bitter orange + peppertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Port wine + bitter orangetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main meat and fat, which renders and flavours the dish as it cooks.
Creme-de-riz
Thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the sauce, and helps dissolve the thickener.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the flavour of the giblets and onion.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with the creme-de-riz slaked in the port wine. Starch must be fully dispersed in cold liquid before heating, or it clumps. Once the gravy simmers, the starch swells and thickens it evenly.

Swap the bitter orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, onion, pepper):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Bitter orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, onion, 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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