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Roast Ducks

Roast ducks stuffed with seasoned crumbs, baked and served with gravy, currant jelly or apple sauce, and green peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 ↓

Roast Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ducks

  1. Draw and clean the ducks.

  2. Wash the inside of the ducks in three waters. Use baking soda in the second wash.

  3. Plunge the ducks into ice-cold water for fifteen minutes.

  4. Wipe the ducks inside and out.

  5. Stuff the ducks with dry crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, onion juice, and parsley. Pack the stuffing well without moistening.

  6. Dredge the ducks with salted and peppered flour.

Roast

  1. Place the ducks on a roasting rack.

  2. Pour boiling water over the ducks.

  3. Roast the ducks covered for 12 to 15 minutes per pound.

  4. Baste the ducks four times with the drippings.

  5. Uncover the ducks.

  6. Wash the ducks with butter.

  7. Dredge the ducks with flour.

  8. Brown the ducks.

Make the gravy

  1. Drain the pan.

  2. Set the pan in ice water to separate grease.

  3. Strain the liquid.

  4. Add minced giblets.

  5. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  6. Boil the gravy for two minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the ducks 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Bread + peastop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Ducks
Provide the main meat, whose fat renders and drippings build the gravy.
Baking soda
Raises the pH of the wash water, helping the skin brown and crisp.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the skin, aiding browning and flavor.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Dry bread crumbs
Absorb the seasoned juices inside the bird, adding moisture and body to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Pack the stuffing well without moistening. Loose or wet stuffing can slow cooking and let the bird steam, so it must stay dry and firm for even roasting.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, onion, parsley, flour, butter, peas. 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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