Skip to main content
Main

To Cook Canvas Back Ducks

A roasted canvas back duck served with a brown gravy made from clear soup, currant jelly, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Currant and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,323 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

To Cook Canvas Back Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the duck

  1. Wipe out the inside of the duck and wash with a little baking soda water if strong.

  2. Sprinkle the inside with black pepper and the outside with salt and flour.

  3. Lay a thin slice of pickled pork across the breast bone.

Roast

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Add 1 pint of hot water to the pan for basting.

  3. Baste the duck every five minutes.

  4. Cook the duck for 18 minutes.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Make a brown gravy with clear soup, currant jelly, and wine to taste.

  2. Serve immediately, as canvas-back duck should not be overcooked.

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. Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pork + winetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,574 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

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

What each ingredient does

Canvas back duck
Is the main protein, cooked by roasting until tender and juicy.
Pickled pork
Lays fat and salty, savoury flavour over the breast as it cooks.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity to the brown gravy.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy.
Flour
Helps the outside brown and thickens the pan juices.

The step that matters

Serve immediately, not overcooked. Canvas-back duck is a lean wild bird, and overcooking toughens its meat and dries it out. Pulling it from the oven at the right point keeps it tender and juicy.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, pork, wine. 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.

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes