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Duck, Roast

A roasted duck stuffed with onions, sage, bread crumbs, and minced liver.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Duck, Roast

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the duck

  1. Pluck, singe, and empty the duck.

  2. Scald and skin the feet, then twist them around the back.

  3. Cut off the head, neck, and pinions at the first joint.

  4. Skewer everything firmly for a plump appearance.

Stuff and roast

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped onions, sage, bread crumbs, minced liver, pepper, salt, and cayenne.

  2. Stuff the mixture inside the duck.

  3. Roast the duck in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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

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

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

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

  3. Sage + livertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  4. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Add moisture and savory sweetness to the stuffing as they soften and release juices.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the stuffing and give it a soft, moist body.
Duck liver
Adds rich, savory depth and a firmer texture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Roast the duck until cooked through. Duck has fatty skin and dense meat, so it needs to reach a safe internal temperature throughout. Checking the thickest part, usually the thigh or breast, confirms it is fully cooked without overcooking the rest.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, bread, liver, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, liver, 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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