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

Old enough to have become a cliché and still correct. Duck fat is heavy and citrus oil is the classic solvent for that heaviness, and dried peel rather than fresh is what survives long cooking. The pairing exists independently in French canard à l'orange and in Chinese braises using dried mandarin peel.

How: Dried peel in a braise; In a sauce finished with the rendered fat

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