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Salmis of Wild Duck

A roasted wild duck served with a red wine sauce and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmis of Wild Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Roast and cut

  1. Roast the wild duck over a brisk fire for about 25 minutes to retain its juices.

  2. Place the duck breast-side down in a dish to cool.

  3. Cut the duck into small joints: two fillets, two legs, and the breast and back in two pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine the trimmings with ½ pint of red wine.

  2. Add salt and pepper to taste, and simmer gently.

Serve

  1. Serve the duck with the sauce and garnish with chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Red wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Red wine + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together716 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Wild duck
Provides the main meat, with its juices retained by a brief hot roast.
Red wine
Forms the base of the sauce, adding acidity and flavour as it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the sauce gently. Simmering gently reduces the wine slowly, concentrating its flavour without letting it boil hard and turn bitter or thin. Too much heat can also toughen the meat if it is kept in the liquid.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red wine, pepper, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, pepper, butter. 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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