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To Roast Ducks

Roasted ducks seasoned with sage, onions, salt, pepper, and butter, served with brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ducks

  1. Remove the feathers and heads from the ducks, leaving the feet on.

  2. Hold the ducks in boiling water for a few minutes to loosen the skin, then peel the skin off.

  3. Wash the insides of the ducks with water.

  4. Wipe the outsides with a dry cloth.

Stuff and truss

  1. Stuff the ducks with a mixture of parboiled onions, minced sage, salt, pepper, and butter, if desired.

  2. Cut off the pinions at the first joint.

  3. Truss the feet behind the backs.

  4. Spit the ducks firmly.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast them over a brisk fire, basting constantly.

  2. Dish the ducks.

  3. Serve quickly with brown gravy.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the main meat, with fat that renders during roasting to keep the bird moist and crisp.
Parboiled onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the stuffing as the bird cooks.
Minced sage
Adds a savoury, herbal aroma that flavours the meat from within.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the stuffing and helps the skin brown.

The step that matters

Roast over a brisk fire, basting constantly. High heat browns the skin and renders its fat. Basting spreads the melted fat and juices over the surface, keeping the skin from drying out or scorching before the meat is cooked through.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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