What spices go with duck

The defining pairing of Chinese roast duck, and it works for a structural reason rather than a poetic one: duck carries a great deal of fat, anethole is fat-soluble, and the anise aroma disperses through rendered duck fat in a way it cannot through a lean meat. It also stands up to the long slow cooking duck needs.

How: In a five-spice rub for roast duck; Whole in a braising liquid for duck legs

Add alongside: Cassia, Sichuan pepper, Chinese five spice

• Easily overdone — one or two stars is enough for a whole bird.

Tea-smoked duck and its relatives depend on it. The tingling numbness cuts through fat in a way no aromatic can, and it works on duck precisely because there is so much fat to cut — the same quantity on chicken reads as harsh.

How: Toasted and ground into a dry cure before smoking; With salt as a dipping condiment for roast duck

Add alongside: Star anise, Salt, Ginger

The warm sweet backbone of Chinese braised duck, and the reason duck takes to fruit so well — cassia bridges the meat and the orange or plum it is so often cooked with. Ceylon cinnamon is too delicate for a braise this long and disappears.

How: In a red-braising liquid; With orange in a French-style duck

Add alongside: Star anise, Orange, Cloves

Duck is dark and mineral enough to take pepper at a level chicken cannot, and cracked pepper on a scored duck breast is close to a default. The piperine reads as warmth against the fat rather than as sharpness.

How: Cracked over a scored breast before searing; In a pepper sauce for duck

Add alongside: Salt, Juniper, Star anise

The European counterpart to the Chinese approach, and the same logic: a resinous, faintly bitter berry against a rich fatty bird. It appears in French and central European duck and game cooking and in the cures for preserved duck.

How: Crushed into a dry cure for confit; In a braise with bay and thyme

Add alongside: Bay leaf, Black pepper, Thyme

Duck is fatty and strongly flavoured and wants something sharp against it that is not simply acidic. Green peppercorns give a clean pungency and a fresh green note that cuts the fat without the sweetness a fruit sauce would bring — which is why the French repertoire pairs them with duck and game as readily as with beef.

How: In a pan sauce for duck breast, crushed and added off the heat; In a terrine or pâté, whole and visible

Add alongside: Juniper, Bay leaf, Orange

• Long simmering keeps the pungency and loses the fresh note, so the corns go in near the end.

Chinese braised duck takes liquorice for the same reason pork does — it rounds a soy-heavy braising liquid and adds sweetness without sugar — and duck fat carries the earthiness well. The pairing sits alongside star anise and cassia in the same master stock rather than replacing either.

How: In a master stock for braised duck; With star anise and cassia

Add alongside: Star anise, Cassia, Ginger