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Baked Ducks

A duck stuffed with a potato, butter, onion, sage mixture, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Ducks

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Clean the duck the day before cooking for better results.

  2. Mash the boiled Irish potatoes while hot and mix in the butter or lard.

  3. Add the chopped onion, salt, pepper, and sage to the potato mixture.

  4. Stuff the duck's body with the potato dressing and place some on the breast.

Bake

  1. Place the duck in a baking dish, add lard and water.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + sagetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together386 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main meat, with fat that renders during baking to keep the flesh moist.
Irish potatoes
Form a starchy dressing that absorbs juices and adds body to the stuffing.
Butter or lard
Adds fat to the potato dressing, giving it richness and a softer texture.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour to the dressing as it softens and sweetens in the fat.
Sage
Adds a savoury, herbal aroma that complements the rich duck meat.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through. Duck has a thick layer of fat and dark meat that needs enough time to cook fully. Checking that the meat is cooked through, especially in the stuffed cavity, helps make sure it is safe to eat and not underdone.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, onion, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, onion, 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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