Name: Salmi De Canard Aux Olives
Ingredients: legs and wings of cooked duck; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 ½ cups good broth; salt to taste; pepper to taste; wine to taste; few olives, pitted and sliced; croutons for garnish

Why it works: Pepper and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Salmi De Canard Aux Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the duck legs and wings into neatly shaped pieces.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the flour until browned.
Gradually add the broth, stirring until smooth and thickened.
Season with salt and pepper, then add the duck pieces.
Simmer gently for 30 to 45 minutes to warm through.
Add wine and olives to taste.

Serve

Garnish with diamond-shaped croutons before serving.

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.

Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Wine + olivetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,415 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).
Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cooked duck legs and wings: Provides the main meat, which is already cooked and only needs warming through in the sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and with the flour forms the base of the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the broth into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
Broth: Forms the liquid of the sauce, carrying savoury flavour.
Wine: Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich sauce.
Olives: Add a salty, briny note that contrasts with the rich duck.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the butter. Cooking the flour in fat, called a roux, gives the sauce its thickening power and nutty flavour. Stopping too early leaves a raw taste, while over-browning can scorch and turn the sauce bitter.

“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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Salmi De Canard Aux Olives