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Mock Duck

A rolled flank steak stuffed with bread crumbs, butter, onion, and seasonings, cooked in water and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mock Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the thin flank steak.

  2. Mix bread crumbs, butter, salt, pepper, and chopped onion to make a dressing.

  3. Spread the dressing over the meat and roll it up.

  4. Tie the rolled meat into the shape of a duck.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the duck in a saucepan with 2 inches of boiling water, adding more water if needed.

  2. Cook until tender and browned.

  3. Remove from the saucepan, place on a platter, and pour gravy over it or serve separately.

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

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Thin flank steak
Provides the meat that is rolled around the dressing and cooked until tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and onion juices to form a moist, soft dressing inside the roll.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and helps the surface brown.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Rolling and tying the meat. The roll must be tight and evenly tied so the dressing stays inside and the meat cooks at an even rate. Loose or uneven rolls can leak filling and cook unevenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, pepper. 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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