Why it works: Olive and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,568 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Duck with Olives
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dress the duck as you would for duck a la puree.
Cook the olives
When the duck is nearly done, blanch the olives.
Add the olives to the sauce in which the duck was stewed.
Boil the olives over low heat until they are done.
Serve
Serve the olives around the duck on the dish.
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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Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,568 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 stewing.
- Olives
- Add a briny, savory flavor that contrasts with the rich duck sauce.
- Sauce from stewing duck
- Carries the duck's flavor and moisture, and flavors the olives as they cook.
The step that matters
Boil the olives over low heat until they are done. Gentle heat cooks the olives evenly and softens them without toughening the surface or breaking them apart, while letting them absorb flavor from the sauce.
“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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