Name: Duck, Roast
Ingredients: 1 duck; Goose stuffing; Flour; Dripping (or fat); Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Juice of 1 lime; ½ cup hot water; Apple sauce or apricot jam (for serving)

Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Duck, Roast

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.

Pluck and draw the duck, reserving the giblets for soup.
Stuff the duck with goose stuffing and dust the outside with flour.
Place the duck in a baking tin and add dripping.
Roast for 50 minutes to 1 hour at 400°F (200°C).
Once done, pour off the fat, then add flour, pepper, salt, lime juice, and hot water to the tin.
Serve with apple sauce or apricot jam.

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 + limetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Flour + limetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,381 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + appletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,026 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lime + appletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together231 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).