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Mock Duck

A rolled steak coated in flour and bread crumbs, baked with tomatoes, onions, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Duck

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the roll

  1. Pound the steak to tenderize it and coat it with flour.

  2. Prepare a dressing by moistening bread crumbs with butter and seasoning with salt, pepper, chopped onion, and sage.

  3. Spread the dressing on the steak, roll it up, and secure it with skewers or string.

Bake and finish the sauce

  1. Place the rolled steak in a baking dish and add the tomatoes thinned with water around it.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour, basting frequently.

  3. Add sliced onion to the tomatoes, season with salt and Worcestershire sauce.

  4. Once cooked, remove the skewers or string, strain the sauce, and if it's not thick enough, add a small portion of flour and let it boil for a moment.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the meat roll and becomes tender when pounded and slowly baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and seasoning to form a moist stuffing inside the roll.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the dressing and the cooking meat.
Tomatoes
Form the braising liquid that gives the sauce its body and tangy flavor.
Flour
Thickens the strained sauce so it clings to the meat.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour. Flour must be added in a small amount and boiled briefly so its starch swells and thickens the liquid. Adding too much creates lumps or a pasty taste, while too little leaves the sauce thin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, bread, butter, pepper, sage, tomato, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, bread, butter, pepper, sage, tomato, sauce. 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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