Why it works: Mushroom and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,480 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fillets of Wild Ducks, Widgeon, or Teal, a LA Bigarrade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the wild ducks, widgeon, or teal by seasoning them and running them on an iron skewer.
Wrap the birds securely in oiled paper and tie with string.
Roast them over a brisk fire until nearly done, then remove the paper and roast closer to the fire for a light-brown color.
Fillet the birds, leaving the pinion bones on, and trim them.
Dish up the fillets, placing a crouton between each fillet.
Add the gravy from the wild fowl to the Bigarrade sauce and pour it over the fillets before serving.
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.
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Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,480 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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