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Duck-soup, with Turnip

A duck soup simmered with onions, carrot, turnip, and broth, finished with roux and turnip balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Duck-soup, with Turnip

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Truss the duck.

  2. Place the duck in a stewpan with butter, onions, carrot, and salt.

  3. Fry on moderate heat, stirring occasionally.

  4. Add white wine.

  5. Reduce until almost evaporated.

  6. Moisten the duck with broth.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Reduce heat.

  9. Drain the duck.

  10. Strain the liquid, skimming off the fat.

Cook the turnip

  1. Cut small balls from the turnip.

  2. Blanch the turnip balls for 7-8 minutes.

  3. Drain the turnip balls.

  4. In a skillet, fry the turnip balls with a pinch of sugar and a little butter until golden.

  5. Moisten the turnip balls with broth.

  6. Reduce the liquid.

Make the soup and serve

  1. Prepare a roux with butter and flour.

  2. Gradually add duck broth to thicken.

  3. Skim the fat from the soup.

  4. Strain the soup back into the stewpan.

  5. Add the turnip balls and sliced duck breast to the soup.

  6. 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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 and rich flavour that the soup is built on.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour for frying the duck, onions, and turnip balls until golden.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and its reduction concentrates flavour in the base.
Turnip
Forms the tender balls that add mild sweetness and body to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the broth through a roux, giving the soup a smoother body.

The step that matters

Skim the fat from the soup. Rendered duck fat floats on the broth and can make the soup greasy and heavy. Skimming before the roux is added and before serving keeps the liquid clean and well balanced.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, white wine, turnip, sugar, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, white wine, turnip, sugar, 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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