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Mock Duck

A braised meat roll coated with breadcrumb and onion mixture, simmered until tender 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 the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs and chopped onion.

  2. Add butter, salt, and pepper; mix well.

Roll and tie

  1. Spread the mixture evenly over the meat.

  2. Roll the meat tightly like a jelly roll, tapering the ends.

  3. Sew and tie the ends securely.

Simmer and serve

  1. Place the rolled meat in a kettle and cover with water by 2-3 inches.

  2. Add more water as it boils away.

  3. Allow the meat to simmer until tender, then let it brown.

  4. Serve on a hot platter and pour gravy over it.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through slow simmering.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and butter, giving the stuffing a soft, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, carrying flavor through the filling.
Onion
Contributes aroma and savory flavor to the stuffing as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender. The meat must be kept covered with water as it simmers, since exposed sections dry out. Slow, gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue, which is what makes the meat tender rather than tough.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, 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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