Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Salmi of Duck
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the duck
Cut the duck into neat joints.
Fry the duck in butter or oil until browned.
Drain the fat and add shallots, anchovy, brown sauce, port, pepper, and salt.
Stew and serve
Let it stew gently for one hour.
Dish up the pieces of duck and strain the gravy over.
Garnish with lemon.
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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Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,523 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,898 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Duck
- Provides the main meat, which browns in fat to build flavour before stewing.
- Brown sauce
- Forms the base of the gravy, adding body and savoury depth during the long stew.
- Port
- Adds sweetness and a rich, fruity aroma that balances the savoury sauce.
- Shallots
- Soften during stewing, adding mild sweetness and aromatic depth to the gravy.
- Anchovy
- Dissolves into the sauce, adding savoury depth without a distinct fishy taste.
The step that matters
Fry the duck until browned. Browning the duck through the surface before stewing creates savoury flavour compounds that the gravy later carries. Pale, underbrowned pieces give a flatter, less rich sauce.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, anchovy, sauce, pepper):
- Lemonthe original
- Limefits about as well
- Avocadofits less well
- Cherryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, anchovy, sauce, pepper. 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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