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Mock Duck

A stuffed steak rolled with bread, potatoes, celery, onion, parsley, egg, and butter, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Duck

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Pound the steak on both sides.

  2. Chop the bread, potatoes, celery, onion, and parsley very fine.

  3. Add the egg and butter to the chopped mixture, and season with pepper and salt.

Roll and bake

  1. Spread the stuffing over the steak, roll it up, and tie it securely.

  2. Place the rolled steak in a roasting pan, add a little water, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  3. Baste often and bake until tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the meat to a platter and thicken the gravy.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the outer wrap that cooks up tender around the stuffing.
Bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the stuffing body and structure.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk to the stuffing, helping it hold together.
Egg
Binds the chopped stuffing ingredients together as it sets during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps keep it moist.

The step that matters

Baste often and bake until tender. Round steak is a lean, tough cut that needs long, moist cooking to break down its connective tissue. Basting keeps the surface from drying out while the collagen slowly softens into tender meat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, potato, celery, parsley, egg, 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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