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Wild Duck, Salmi of

A stew of wild duck pieces simmered in stock, orange and lemon juices, wine, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Wild Duck, Salmi of

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Put the bones, onion, thyme, and bay leaf into a saucepan, cover with cold water, and simmer for at least 1½ hours.

Make the sauce

  1. Cut the remains of the ducks into neat pieces.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook until a brown roux forms.

  3. Add the strained stock and stir until it boils.

  4. Add the pieces of duck, orange juice, lemon juice, and wine, then season to taste.

  5. Cover the saucepan and let it stand for about 20 minutes, ensuring it is hot but not boiling.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Orange + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together442 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Wild duck remains
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender as it gently heats in the sauce.
Butter and flour
Form a brown roux that thickens the stock and adds a nutty, toasted flavour.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the stew, carrying the savoury flavour of the game.
Port wine or claret
Adds depth and a fruity, slightly acidic richness to the sauce.
Orange juice and lemon juice
Add brightness and acidity that balance the richness of the game and wine.

The step that matters

Keep the stew hot but not boiling. Boiling a stew with cooked duck can toughen the meat and make the sauce break or turn cloudy, so gentle heat keeps it tender and smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, butter, flour, orange, lemon, thyme, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, butter, flour, orange, lemon, thyme, 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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