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 ↓
Fbepabino Wild Duck
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ducks
Rub the ducks with alcohol and singe over a small flame to remove down.
Wash the ducks thoroughly with soda water inside.
Optionally boil the ducks in soda water for 10 minutes.
Rinse and dry the ducks.
If using, chop the fat salt pork and add it to the stuffing.
For frying, cut the ducks like a chicken and cook in warm water briefly to draw out blood.
Boil the ducks in soda water for 10 minutes.
Wash the ducks.
Cook the ducks in boiling water until two-thirds done.
Drain the ducks.
Wipe the ducks.
Cook and serve
Roast the ducks in a covered roasting pan, basting frequently for 1 to 1.5 hours.
Fry the ducks in hot butter until tender and crisp.
Make gravy by adding cream to the pan and bringing it to a boil.
Pour the gravy over the ducks.
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.
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Cream + curranttop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,829 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wild ducks
- Provide the main meat, which is cooked through and crisped by frying or roasting.
- Cream
- Enriches the pan gravy, adding richness and a smooth, silky texture when boiled.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the duck skin.
- Fat salt pork
- Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stuffing, keeping the meat moist as it cooks.
The step that matters
Cook the ducks in boiling water until two-thirds done. Partial cooking in water tenderises the meat before frying. Going too far makes the flesh dry and stringy, so the duck should stop before fully cooked.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, cream):
- Coconutfits better
- Applefits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, cream. 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.
More wild duck recipes
You might also like
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.