Skip to main content
Main

Roast Duck with Potato Dressing

A roasted duck stuffed with a mixture of mashed potatoes, onions, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 with Potato Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean, wash, and dry the duck thoroughly.

  2. Rub ½ cup coarse sea salt inside the duck.

Stuff and roast

  1. In a bowl, combine mashed potatoes, chopped onions, summer savory, salt, pepper, butter, and enough cream to moisten.

  2. Stuff the potato mixture into the duck.

  3. Roast the duck, basting often 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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 and rendered fat that bastes and browns the bird as it roasts.
Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the dressing, giving it body and a soft, starchy texture.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften and cook inside the stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and helps it brown lightly.
Cream
Adds moisture so the potato stuffing stays soft rather than dry.
Summer savory
Contributes a herbal, peppery aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Roast the duck, basting often until cooked through.. The stuffing sits inside the bird and heats more slowly than the surface, so it must be fully hot throughout. Regular basting keeps the skin moist and helps it brown evenly while the cavity warms.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper, butter, cream. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes