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Duckling, Stuffed

A roasted duckling stuffed with liver, herbs, breadcrumbs, and butter, served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Duckling, Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Blanch the chicken liver and the liver from the duckling, then chop them finely.

  2. Add the herbs, breadcrumbs, melted butter, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and bind with the egg yolks.

  3. Stuff the duckling with the mixture and baste it well with hot butter or fat.

Roast and finish

  1. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1 hour, basting frequently.

  2. Drain off excess fat.

  3. Pour the hot brown sauce into the baking tin.

  4. Continue cooking until the duckling is tender, about 15-20 minutes.

  5. Serve on a hot dish.

  6. Strain some sauce over the duckling.

  7. Garnish with orange quarters.

  8. Serve the remaining sauce in a sauceboat.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Chicken + thymetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape while roasting.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the fat and juices, giving the stuffing a moist, soft body.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the duckling skin brown and crisp while roasting.
Chicken liver
Adds a rich, savoury depth and a soft, creamy texture to the stuffing.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the pan and the finished dish.

The step that matters

Draining the excess fat before adding the brown sauce. Duckling releases a lot of fat as it roasts. Leaving too much in the tin can make the sauce greasy and stop the skin from crisping, so draining it off first keeps the sauce clean-tasting.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, liver, sauce, butter, egg, shallot, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, liver, sauce, butter, egg, shallot, parsley. 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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