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Duck and Olives

A savory duck dish simmered with olives, sherry, Worcestershire sauce, and a cornstarch‑based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and olive work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 820 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Duck and Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the stock, reserving a little to blend with the cornstarch.

  2. Add sherry, Worcestershire sauce, and salt to the stock.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the pieces of duck and olives to the pot.

  2. Once heated and the sauce boils, stir in the cornstarch mixed with the reserved cold stock.

  3. Stir and boil for about 2 minutes, then 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. Sherry + olivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together820 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Meat + olivetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  3. Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,167 recipes
  5. Meat + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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 as it heats in the sauce.
Meat jelly or strong stock
Forms the savoury liquid base that the rest of the sauce is built on.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.
Olives
Contribute a salty, briny flavour that cuts through the richness of the duck.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot liquid into a glossy sauce when it boils.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cornstarch. Cornstarch must be mixed with cold stock first and added while the sauce is hot. Added directly or to a cold liquid, it clumps and does not thicken evenly. Boiling activates its thickening power, so the sauce should be kept at a boil while stirring.

“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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