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Duck, Stewed Whole

A whole duck stewed with herbs, onions, and a brown stock sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Duck, Stewed Whole

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Roast and stew

  1. Roast the duck in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  2. Place the duck in a stewpan with the herbs and onions.

  3. Cook slowly for 45 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour to the melted butter.

  2. Cook until the mixture is browned.

  3. Strain the mixture into the brown stock.

  4. Stir over heat until smooth.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  7. Strain the sauce.

Serve

  1. Serve the duck on a hot dish.

  2. Pour some sauce over the duck.

  3. Serve the remaining sauce in a sauceboat.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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 cooking in the stewpan.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour and carries flavour while the roux cooks.
Flour
Browned with butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
Brown stock
Liquid base of the sauce, adding savoury depth as it thickens.
Onions
Soften and sweeten during slow cooking, adding flavour to the duck and its juices.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux until browned. Flour must cook long enough in the butter to lose its raw taste and develop colour, while stirring prevents scorching. Stirring in the stock afterward then gives a smooth, well-thickened sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sage, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sage, parsley, thyme, 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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