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Fricassee of Ducks

A duck fricassee made with stock, claret, and browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Fricassee of Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Clean, wash, and cut the ducks into four pieces each.

  2. Flour the duck pieces and fry them in oil until light brown.

  3. Drain the duck pieces and pour stock and claret into a saucepan.

Stew and make the gravy

  1. Add chopped parsley, minced onion, salt, and pepper; cover and stew for 30 minutes until tender.

  2. Remove the duck pieces, strain the gravy, and set it in cold water to separate the fat.

  3. Remove the fat and thicken the gravy with browned flour mixed with water.

Serve

  1. Boil the gravy, return the duck pieces to heat, and serve very hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ducks
Provide the meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing in liquid.
Flour
Coats the duck so it browns in the frying oil and gives a crisp surface.
Stock
Forms the moist liquid base that cooks the duck and becomes the gravy.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour to the gravy during stewing.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty colour and flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the floured duck until light brown. Browning the flour-coated surface builds colour and flavour through the Maillard reaction. Frying too hot can scorch the coating before the meat is cooked, while too little heat leaves it pale and greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, parsley, 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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