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Widgeon, Roasted

Roasted widgeon seasoned with liver, flour, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, lemon rind, and egg yolk, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Widgeon, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the breast of the widgeon with its liver until red.

  2. Truss the widgeon securely and place it before a clear fire.

  3. Flour the widgeon and baste frequently until cooked.

  4. Serve the widgeon on toast and send the gravy to the table.

  5. If desired, stuff the widgeon with pounded liver mixed with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, lemon rind, and egg yolk.

  6. Roast for 15 minutes for rare, or 20-25 minutes for well done.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Liver + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Widgeon
The main bird, whose lean meat is the centrepiece of the dish.
Liver of the widgeon
Rubbed on the breast and pounded into the stuffing, adding rich, savoury flavour.
Flour
Coats the bird's skin, helping it brown and crisp as it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices in the stuffing, giving it body and moisture.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.

The step that matters

Judging the roasting time. Lean game birds like widgeon dry out quickly once past rare, so the gap between rare and well done is only a few minutes and overcooking costs tenderness.

“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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