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Duck, Stewed Whole

A whole duck is roasted and then stewed with onion, stock, olives, and a brown roux sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Duck, Stewed Whole

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and roast the duck

  1. Singe, draw, and truss the duck.

  2. Slice the onion and place it in a baking dish.

  3. Place the duck on top of the onion, baste with hot fat, and roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour, basting frequently.

Make the sauce

  1. In the meantime, melt butter in a pan, stir in flour, and cook until a brown roux forms.

  2. Add the stock to the roux, stir until boiling, and then simmer until needed.

  3. Once the duck is roasted, remove the trussing strings and cut the bird into small joints.

  4. Add the joints and olives to the sauce, season well, and simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

  5. Return the baking dish to the oven until the onion slices are tender.

  6. Rub the onion through a fine sieve and add it to the sauce.

  7. Drain off any excess fat and add the sediment from the baking dish to the sauce.

Serve

  1. Serve the duck in the center of a hot dish on a croute of fried bread, pour over the sauce and olives, and serve hot.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 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 (in the method)
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful as it roasts and simmers in the sauce.
Butter
Forms the fat base of the roux, carrying the flour and adding richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce with the butter as a roux, and cooking it brown adds a nutty colour and flavour.
Stock
Forms the liquid body of the sauce, carrying flavour from the roux and the roasting juices.
Onion
Softens while roasting under the duck, then is pureed into the sauce to add body and sweetness.
Olives
Add a salty, briny note that cuts through the richness of the duck and sauce.

The step that matters

Making the brown roux. Cooking butter and flour together until brown builds color and nutty flavour, but it can scorch quickly. Stirring constantly over moderate heat keeps it from burning, which would make the sauce bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, flour, olive, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, flour, olive, bread. 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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