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Roast Duck

Roast Duck is a roasted duck served with currant jelly or apple sauce and green peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Roast Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. If the duck is old, par-boil it in the cooker for 3 hours.

  2. Cut the neck close.

  3. Tie the wings and legs securely.

  4. Stuff the duck.

  5. Mix bread crumbs, butter, onions, sage, black pepper, and salt for the dressing.

  6. Do not overstuff the duck.

  7. Sew the openings firmly.

  8. If the duck is not plump, tie a slice of salt pork over the breast.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the duck in a casserole with the moisture mixture.

  2. Cook in the cooker with one hot disc below and one above it.

  3. Roast young ducks for 25–30 minutes.

  4. Roast full-grown ducks for 1 hour or more.

  5. Serve with currant jelly or apple sauce and green peas.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sage + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Forms the main dish; its fat renders during roasting, keeping the meat moist and browning the skin.
Bread crumbs
Absorb fat and juices in the dressing, giving it a soft, moist body.
Butter
Adds fat to the dressing, carrying flavour and keeping the crumbs moist.
Onions
Release moisture and sweetness as they cook inside the dressing.
Sage
Contributes its aromatic, savoury flavour to the dressing.

The step that matters

Do not overstuff the duck. Dressing expands as it heats and needs room; packing it tightly can leave the centre dense and undercooked while the outside overcooks.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, onion, sage, pepper, pork, vinegar. 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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