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Braised Duck with Mushrooms

A braised duck served with a mushroom and herb gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Braised Duck with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the duck

  1. Braise the duck.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add chives, mushrooms, and parsley.

  3. Fry for 10 minutes.

  4. Dredge in a little flour.

  5. Add the liquor from the duck after braising.

  6. Stir for a few minutes.

  7. Skim off the fat.

  8. Strain the mixture.

Serve

  1. Dish the duck.

  2. Pour the gravy over it.

  3. Serve.

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. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Chive + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chive + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 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

Duck
Braising slowly cooks the meat until tender and yields flavorful liquor for the gravy.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor and adds richness to the gravy base.
Mushrooms
Release moisture and savory flavor when fried in butter.
Flour
Starch that thickens the liquor into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and liquor. Stirring keeps the flour from forming lumps and cooks out its raw taste, so the gravy thickens smoothly and tastes clean.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, chive, mushroom, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, chive, mushroom, flour. 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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