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Duck Salmi

A duck stew simmered in claret with butter, spices, leeks, onions, and sage or bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Duck Salmi

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place ducks in a saucepan with claret, butter, salt, pepper, spices, leeks, onions, and sage or bay leaves.

  2. Simmer gently over a clear fire, stirring occasionally to mix well.

  3. When cooked, thicken the sauce with flour or arrowroot and serve.

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. Allspice + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender as it simmers slowly in the wine.
Claret
Forms the braising liquid and flavours the sauce with its acidity and tannins.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
Leeks
Soften during simmering and add a mild, sweet onion-like depth to the sauce.
Onions
Break down during simmering, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
Flour or arrowroot
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, glossy sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Starch must be added once the liquid is near its final state, and it needs to be cooked to swell and thicken properly. Adding it to hot liquid without first making a smooth paste can cause lumps, so it is best stirred in gradually.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, clove, allspice, leek, sage, 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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