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Ducks, a LA Macedoine

A boiled duck served with a salad of carrot, onion, cloves, and parsley in white broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ducks, a LA Macedoine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the ducks for boiling.

  2. Place them in an oval stewpan with the carrot, onion, cloves, and parsley.

Braise

  1. Moisten with the white broth and cover with a piece of well-buttered paper.

  2. Put the lid on the stewpan and bring to a boil.

  3. Place live embers on the lid and move the stewpan to the side of the stove to braise gently for about 1 hour.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, drain the ducks on a napkin, remove the string, and serve with a variety of glazed vegetables.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
White broth
Supplies liquid that keeps the ducks moist and flavours the braising cooking liquid.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid as it cooks.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Gentle braising over embers. Keeping the heat low and the liquid gently simmering lets connective tissue in the duck soften without toughening the meat. A rolling boil would make the meat tough and dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, clove, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, clove, 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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