Skip to main content
Main

Ducks, a LA Macedoine

A duck dish boiled with carrot, onion, cloves, parsley, and white broth, served with glazed vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 the ducks

  1. Truss the ducks for boiling.

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

  3. Moisten with the white broth and cover with well-buttered paper.

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

Braise and serve

  1. Place live embers on the lid and braise gently for about 1 hour.

  2. 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 the liquid that gently cooks the ducks and keeps them moist.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour to the braising liquid as it softens.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Braise gently rather than boiling hard. Once the lid is on and the pot is brought to a boil, the heat must drop to a gentle simmer for the hour of braising. A hard boil toughens meat proteins and drives off liquid, while slow, low heat breaks down connective tissue and keeps the duck moist.

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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes