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Stewed Duck

A roasted duck stewed with butter, shallots, green onions, parsley, carrots, and beef stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Stewed Duck

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 ↓

Stewed Duck

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.

Roast the duck

  1. Truss the duck firmly and roast it halfway in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and fry the minced shallots until delicate.

  2. Add the green onions, parsley, and carrots to the stewpan and sauté briefly.

  3. Place the duck in the stewpan, cover it with boiling beef stock or Espagnole sauce.

  4. Simmer for 1 to 1.25 hours, turning the duck occasionally 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main protein and rich fat that flavours the braising liquid.
Butter
Carries the shallots and adds richness and a gently browned aroma.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet aromatic base to the stew.
Beef stock or espagnole sauce
Forms the braising liquid that gives moisture and savoury depth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stewing vegetables.

The step that matters

Simmering the duck. Duck is fatty and its connective tissue needs long, gentle simmering to become tender. Turning it keeps all sides in contact with the liquid so it cooks evenly, while a hard boil can toughen the meat and make the sauce cloudy.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, parsley, carrot, pepper, beef):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, parsley, carrot, pepper, 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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