Skip to main content
Main

Salmis of Wild Duck

A sauce made from roasted wild duck trimmings, sherry, stock, herbs, and condensed beef, served over duck pieces with olives and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Salmis of Wild Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Roast the wild ducks and cut them into pieces.

  2. Keep warm in a saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. In another saucepan, combine the trimmings and bones with sherry wine, stock, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, pepper leaves, parsley, and shallots.

  2. Boil briskly for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture through a colander, then through a fine sieve.

  4. Add the condensed beef to the strained liquid.

  5. Boil until thickened.

  6. Squeeze in the lemon juice.

  7. Stir in the butter.

  8. Season with salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the duck pieces.

  2. Mix in the olives.

  3. Serve on a deep platter, surrounded by croutons.

  4. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Wild ducks
Provide the main meat, which is roasted and then served in pieces with the sauce.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce as it simmers with the trimmings.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying flavour from the bones and trimmings.
Condensed beef
Adds concentrated savoury beef flavour and body to the sauce as it reduces.
Butter
Stirred into the finished sauce to add richness and a smooth, glossy texture.
Olives
Add a salty, briny note that contrasts with the rich duck and sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until thickened. Boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates flavour and body. Stopping too early leaves the sauce thin, while over-boiling can make it too salty once the condensed beef is added.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, wine, thyme, pepper, parsley, shallot, beef):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, wine, thyme, pepper, parsley, shallot, beef. 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

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes