Name: To Roast Wild Ducks, Widgeons, or Teal
Ingredients: wild ducks; widgeons; teal; veal gravy; pepper; coarse sea salt; claret; juice of 2 oranges

Why it works: Pepper and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,402 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

To Roast Wild Ducks, Widgeons, or Teal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roast the wild ducks, widgeons, or teal for 15 minutes if your fire is brisk.
In a saucepan, heat veal gravy and season it with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Squeeze in claret and the juice of 2 oranges, then stir to combine.

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.

Pepper + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,402 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + orangetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together234 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).