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Roast Duok

A roasted wild duck served in a tomato and onion sauce with olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Roast Duok

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Roast the wild ducks, then let them cool.

  2. Carve the ducks and discard the wings.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine water, strained tomatoes, onion juice, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil.

  2. Add the sliced duck to the boiling mixture.

  3. Cook for 15 minutes.

  4. Thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch.

  5. Add the olives and heat everything through.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Wild ducks
Provide the main protein, which is cooked first and then simmered in the sauce.
Strained tomatoes
Supply acidity and body, forming the base of the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a glossy sauce as it heats.
Olives
Add a briny, salty flavour that contrasts with the rich duck and tomato.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch. Cornstarch needs to reach a simmer to swell and thicken. Adding it to a cold or barely warm liquid can leave lumps or a thin sauce, so stir it in well and keep the sauce hot until it thickens.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, olive):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, olive. 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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