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A Boiled Duck or Rabbit with Onions

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,483 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

A Boiled Duck or Rabbit with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the duck or rabbit in a large pot of water, skimming off any scum that rises. Boil for about 30 minutes.

  2. Peel and slice the onions, then boil them in a mixture of milk and water for 30 minutes. Drain and chop them finely.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the chopped onions with a little flour, cream, and butter. Cook over low heat until thickened.

  4. Cut the duck or rabbit in half and place on a serving dish. Pour the onion sauce over it.

  5. For an alternative sauce, chop a large onion, parsley, and lettuce. Combine with gravy, butter, lemon juice, pepper, and salt. Stew for 30 minutes, then add red wine before serving.

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. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, milk, flour, cream, butter, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, milk, flour, cream, butter, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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