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Ragouts of Poultry, Game, Pigeons, Rabbits, Etc.

A stew of duck or other poultry with broth, spices, and a butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ragouts of Poultry, Game, Pigeons, Rabbits, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the bird

  1. Half roast the duck or fowl.

  2. Stew it whole or cut it into pieces.

  3. Place the duck or fowl in a stew-pan with broth or water, meat trimmings, onion, allspice, black pepper, and lemon peel.

  4. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.

  5. Simmer gently for about 1 hour and 15 minutes for a duck or fowl, longer for larger birds.

  6. Strain the liquid.

  7. Keep the duck warm by the fire, skimming off the fat.

Make the sauce

  1. In a clean stew-pan, melt the butter.

  2. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff paste.

  3. Gradually add the strained liquid.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Add port wine and lemon juice.

  6. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Place the duck in a dish.

  2. Strain the sauce over it.

  3. Garnish with toasted or fried bread.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and, with flour, forms the paste that thickens the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the strained broth into a smooth, body-rich sauce when cooked with butter.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce as it simmers.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, fatty sauce.
Duck or fowl
Provides the main meat, whose flavour is drawn into the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Adding the flour to the butter. Flour must be cooked into the melted butter to form a smooth paste; adding it too fast or without stirring causes lumps when the liquid is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, clove, allspice, pepper, lemon, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, clove, allspice, pepper, lemon, butter, flour. 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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