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Duck Stewed

A stew of duck simmered with onions, sage, mint, peas, and beef gravy, finished with optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Duck Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew base

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and fry the onions until brown.

  2. Mix the flour with a little cold broth until smooth, then add to the butter and onions.

  3. Gradually stir in the beef gravy and add the duck.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add the chopped sage and mint, then let it simmer slowly for 20 minutes.

  2. If using a whole duck, turn it over and add the shelled peas.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Once the peas are cooked, serve with a drizzle of cream if desired.

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. Mint + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  3. Sage + minttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together138 recipes

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

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce as it cooks.
Beef gravy
Provides the liquid base and savoury flavour for the stew.
Duck
Supplies the main meat and rich fat that flavours the stew.
Onions
Browned in butter to build sweetness and depth in the base.
Butter
Fat for frying the onions, adding richness and browning.
Shelled peas
Add sweetness and a tender vegetable texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into the cold broth before adding. Mixing flour with cold liquid first keeps it from clumping, so it dissolves smoothly into the sauce when stirred into the hot butter and onions.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, flour, beef, sage, peas, 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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