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Wild Duck, Salmi of

A stew of cold roast wild duck remains simmered with stock, port wine, orange, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Wild Duck, Salmi of

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sauce base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.

  4. Gradually add the stock, port wine, orange juice, and lemon juice, stirring constantly.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the duck remains, orange rind, thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Simmer for 20 minutes, allowing flavors to meld.

  3. Serve hot, garnished with additional orange rind if desired.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Orange + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together442 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

Cold roast wild duck
Provides the meat that becomes tender and flavourful as it simmers in the stew.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and forms the base for the flour roux.
Flour
Cooks with the butter to thicken the stock into a smooth, body-rich stew.
Port wine or claret
Adds depth and a touch of sweetness and acidity to the sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries flavour and keeps the stew moist.
Orange rind
Adds aromatic citrus oils that brighten the rich, gamey flavour.

The step that matters

Gradually add the stock, port wine, orange juice, and lemon juice, stirring constantly.. Adding liquid slowly while stirring lets the flour disperse evenly in the butter, preventing lumps and giving a smooth, thickened sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, butter, flour, orange, lemon, thyme, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, butter, flour, orange, lemon, thyme, pepper. 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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