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Roast Duck

A roasted duck stuffed with mashed potatoes, onion, bacon, and flavored with salt, pepper, orange, and Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Duck

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the duck thoroughly.

  2. Prepare the stuffing by mixing mashed potatoes with fried onion and shredded bacon. Season the stuffing with salt and pepper.

  3. Stuff the duck with the mixture.

Roast

  1. Bake the duck in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Baste the duck with water mixed with sliced orange and Madeira wine.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + orangetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  5. Potato + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main protein and fat that render and brown during roasting.
Mashed potatoes
Absorb rendered duck fat and juices, keeping the stuffing moist and soft.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat that flavours the stuffing as it cooks.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth when fried until brown.
Madeira wine
Adds sweet, fortified depth to the basting liquid as it reduces and browns.

The step that matters

Baste the duck with water mixed with sliced orange and Madeira wine.. Duck skin holds a lot of fat, and the basting liquid helps keep the surface from drying and scorching while sugars in the wine and orange brown gently, so the sauce base is not burnt.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper, madeira wine. 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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