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Duck Stewed

A stew made with duck, butter, onions, flour, beef gravy, sage, mint, peas, and seasonings, finished with optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Duck Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using a whole duck, partially roast it first.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a stew pan and fry the onions until brown.

  2. Mix flour with a little cold broth until smooth, then add to the pan with the butter and onions.

  3. Gradually stir in the beef gravy and add the duck.

Stew and finish

  1. Add chopped sage and mint, then simmer slowly for 20 minutes.

  2. If the duck is whole, turn it over and add the shelled peas.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and cook until the peas are tender.

  4. Stir in cream before serving, 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. Mint + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + minttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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 becomes tender through slow simmering in the gravy.
Butter
Carries the onions' browning and adds richness to the base of the sauce.
Onions
Caramelise when fried until brown, adding sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it becomes smooth and coats the duck.
Beef gravy
Forms the liquid of the stew, adding savoury body and flavour.
Shelled peas
Add sweetness and a soft texture as they cook in the stew.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into cold broth before adding it. Stirring flour into cold liquid first disperses the starch granules so they do not clump. Adding dry flour directly to hot fat or liquid forms lumps that are hard to smooth out.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, flour, beef, sage, peas, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, flour, beef, sage, peas, 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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