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A Duck with Green Peas

A duck stewed with green peas, lettuce, herbs, and a buttery sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

A Duck with Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Melt the butter in a deep stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Sear the duck.

  3. Coat the duck with flour.

  4. Turn the duck in the pan for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Pour out all the fat.

  6. Leave the duck in the pan.

Stew and season

  1. Add the gravy, peas, chopped lettuces, sweet herbs, pepper, and salt.

  2. Cover the pan.

  3. Let it stew for 30 minutes, shaking occasionally.

  4. Grate in nutmeg.

  5. Add mace.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the sauce with butter rolled in flour or the beaten egg yolk mixed with cream.

  2. Shake everything together for 3-4 minutes.

  3. Remove the sweet herbs.

  4. Place the duck on a dish.

  5. Pour the sauce over the duck.

  6. Garnish with chopped boiled mint if desired.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lettuce + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Main protein; searing and stewing it gives the meat browned flavour and tender texture.
Flour
Coats the duck and thickens the sauce, giving it body.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce, adding richness and a smoother texture.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the thickened sauce.
Peas
Add sweetness and bulk, softening as they stew in the sauce.
Lettuces
Break down during stewing, adding moisture and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce with egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat by coagulating its proteins. If the sauce boils after adding it, the yolk can scramble and turn grainy, so add it off the heat or at a gentle simmer while stirring.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, peas, lettuce, pepper, nutmeg, flour, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, peas, lettuce, pepper, nutmeg, flour, egg. 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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