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To Stew Ducks

A stew made with half-roasted duck, beef gravy, herbs, onion, peas, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

To Stew Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the half-roasted duck in a stew pan.

  2. Add beef gravy, chopped sage, chopped mint, pepper, salt, and finely shredded onion.

  3. Simmer for 15 minutes and skim the surface.

  4. Add green peas, cover, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

  5. Stir in butter and flour, then bring to a boil.

  6. Serve in one dish.

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. Mint + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + minttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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 rich fat that flavors the broth.
Beef gravy
Supplies the liquid base and savory depth for the stew.
Green peas
Add sweetness and body as they cook into the liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the stew's flavor and mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the stewing liquid as it comes to a boil.

The step that matters

Stir in butter and flour, then bring to a boil. Flour must be fully dispersed into the hot liquid, or it clumps. Once stirred in, bringing it to a boil activates the starch so the stew thickens evenly.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sage, pepper, onion, peas, butter, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sage, pepper, onion, peas, butter, flour. 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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