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Substitute for Roast Duck

A stuffed mutton shoulder baked as a roast duck substitute.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper 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 ↓

Substitute for Roast 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

  1. Have the butcher bone the shoulder of mutton.

  2. Put the bones in a pot with vegetables and water to stew for soup.

  3. In a bowl, mix the onions, sage, bread crumbs, mashed potatoes, salt, and pepper.

  4. Lay the stuffing on the mutton and sew it up to resemble a duck.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the mutton in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting frequently.

  2. Make gravy in the roasting tin as you would for any roast.

  3. Serve with apple sauce.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sage + potatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together386 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton shoulder
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that is roasted and served.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the onions and potatoes, helping the stuffing hold together.
Mashed potatoes
Add moisture and body to the stuffing, keeping it soft and tender as it roasts.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften within the stuffing.

The step that matters

Lay the stuffing on the mutton and sew it up. If the stuffing is packed too loosely or the seams are not closed well, it can spill out during roasting. Even spreading and secure stitching keep the filling inside and cooking evenly.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, bread, potato, 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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