Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Modern Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
Truss the duck firmly and roast it halfway over a high heat.
In a stewpan, combine the duck with a small bunch of green onions, parsley, and young carrots.
Alternatively, use minced escalots fried in butter to flavor the gravy.
Stew the duck for 1 to 1.25 hours, partially covering it with boiling gravy and turning it occasionally.
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.
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Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,994 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 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
- Provides the main meat, whose fat renders during roasting and stewing to keep the flesh moist.
- Young carrots
- Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid.
- Green onions
- Add mild aromatic flavor to the stewing liquid.
- Beef stock or espagnole sauce
- Forms the gravy that flavors and moistens the duck during stewing.
The step that matters
Stew the duck for 1 to 1.25 hours. Partially covering the duck with boiling gravy and turning it occasionally keeps it moist and cooking evenly. Too little liquid or turning can leave the meat dry or unevenly cooked.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, carrot, butter, beef):
- Beansfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Sesamefits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, carrot, butter, beef. 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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