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To Boast Wild Ducks

Roasted wild ducks stuffed with soaked bread, flavored with port wine or claret, and basted with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Boast Wild Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ducks

  1. Soak a bit of soft bread in port wine or claret.

  2. Stuff the soaked bread into the wild ducks.

  3. Flour the ducks well.

Roast

  1. Place them near a very clear and brisk fire to brown quickly while retaining their juices.

  2. Baste the ducks constantly with butter.

  3. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, adjusting time for desired doneness.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Bread + port winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together321 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Wild ducks
The main meat, which browns on the outside while cooking through.
Soft bread
Soaks up wine and butter, keeping the stuffing moist inside the bird.
Port wine or claret
Adds flavour and moisture to the soaked bread stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, aiding browning and richness on the skin.

The step that matters

Placing the ducks near a brisk, clear fire. High, steady heat browns the outside quickly, sealing in juices before the meat dries out. Heat that is too weak or too slow lets the birds dry before they colour.

“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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