Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Preparing Wild Duck
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the duck
Remove the gills from the duck and singe it by rubbing with alcohol and holding it over a small flame until the fuzz burns off.
Wash the duck thoroughly with soda water.
Boil the duck in soda water for 10 minutes, then rinse with clear water and wipe dry.
For stuffing, use chopped onion or fat salt pork to reduce the strong taste.
Roast or fry
Roast the duck in a covered roasting pan, basting frequently for 1 to 1.5 hours if young and tender.
To fry, cut the duck into pieces and cook in warm water briefly to draw out the blood.
Then cook in soda water for 10 minutes, wash in clear water, and boil until two-thirds done.
Drain, wipe, and fry in hot butter until tender and crisp.
Make the gravy and serve
Make gravy by boiling ½ pint of cream in the pan used for frying the duck and pour it over the birds.
Serve with currant jelly.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + porktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wild duck
- Provides the meat, which is cleaned, parboiled and then roasted or fried until tender.
- Cream
- Boiled in the frying pan to make a rich, smooth gravy that coats the birds.
- Butter
- Fries the duck pieces in hot fat, adding browning and a crisp finish.
- Currant jelly
- Served alongside as a sweet-tart accompaniment that balances the rich duck.
The step that matters
Parboiling the duck before roasting or frying. Boiling in soda water and rinsing removes surface residue and strong flavour, and the timing matters: boiling too long leaves the meat dry and stringy, while too short leaves it tough and gamy.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, cream, currant):
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Capsicumfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, cream, currant. 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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