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Duck, Stewed with Green Pease

A stew of duck with green peas, butter, flour, stock, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Duck, Stewed with Green Pease

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the duck

  1. In a stew-pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the trussed duck and turn it until browned all over.

  3. Remove the duck and set it aside on a dish.

Stew

  1. In the same pan, brown the flour to make a roux.

  2. Stir in the stock until smooth, then return the duck to the pan.

  3. Add the green peas and the herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

  4. Cover and stew slowly over low heat until cooked through.

  5. Serve the peas around the duck on the same dish.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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 stewing liquid.
Butter
Carries the browning of the duck and adds richness to the pan.
Flour
Browned in the fat to form a roux that thickens the stock.
Stock
Forms the cooking liquid that becomes the savoury sauce.
Green peas
Add sweetness and colour, and soften as they stew in the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the flour for the roux. Flour browned in fat must be stirred constantly over moderate heat; if it scorches it turns bitter, and if it is stirred in raw it leaves a pasty, floury taste and weaker thickening.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper. 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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