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Duck with Olives

A duck braised with bacon, herbs, onion, and olives in a savory gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Duck with Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Brown and build the gravy

  1. Brown the duck and bacon in a pan, then remove them.

  2. Stir in the flour until browned.

  3. Gradually add the boiling water or stock and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the bouquet, onion, salt, and pepper.

Simmer and serve

  1. Return the duck and bacon to the pan, cover, and simmer on low heat.

  2. Remove the stones from the olives and blanch them in boiling water for 3-4 minutes.

  3. Add the olives to the duck and simmer for 5 minutes.

  4. Serve the duck on a hot dish, surrounded by olives, and pour the strained gravy over it.

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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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, which turns tender and flavourful during slow simmering.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat and smoky flavour that seasons the duck and gravy.
Flour
Browned in the pan, it thickens the gravy and adds nutty colour.
Olives
Add salty, briny flavour that cuts the richness of the duck and gravy.

The step that matters

Simmering the duck on low heat. Gentle, low heat lets the tough connective tissue in duck break down slowly, keeping the meat tender. A hard boil toughens the meat and can make the gravy cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Eggplantfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, olive, 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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