Name: Duck with Turnips
Ingredients: 1 duck; ½ cup bacon; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 cup broth; 1 cup turnip sauce; 6 turnips; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon powdered sugar; 1 tablespoon flour; ½ cup veal gravy; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 1 bundle parsley; 2 green onions

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,842 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,874 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,252 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 is cooked slowly by stewing, simmering and roasting.
Bacon: Lays fat over the duck, adding moisture and savory flavor as it cooks.
Turnips: Form the vegetable element, browning in butter and sugar for sweetness and color.
Butter: Fat that fries the turnips, adding richness and promoting browning.
Powdered sugar: Helps the turnips brown and adds a touch of sweetness.
Flour: Thickens the turnip liquid, giving it body.

The step that matters

Skim off fat. Duck releases a lot of fat as it cooks; leaving it in the sauce makes the sauce greasy and heavy, while skimming keeps it clean and rich.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, butter, sugar, flour, veal, pepper, parsley):

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, butter, sugar, flour, veal, pepper, parsley. 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.

Duck with Turnips