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Mock Duck

A rolled steak coated with bread and spices, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

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. Trim and beat the round steak well.

  2. Make a dressing by mixing crumbled bread, pepper, coarse sea salt, butter, egg, and finely chopped onion.

  3. Spread the dressing on the steak, roll it up, and tie it securely.

Bake

  1. Place the rolled steak in a pan with a little water.

  2. Sprinkle flour, salt, and pepper over the mock duck.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked through.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 wrapper that holds the dressing and cooks into the tender main body of the dish.
Cold bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the dressing a soft, bulky texture.
Egg
Binds the bread and onion together so the dressing holds its shape when rolled.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory flavor to the dressing as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Tie the roll securely. If the roll is loose, the dressing can spill out and the steak may cook unevenly. A firm, snug roll keeps the filling inside and helps the meat cook at a consistent rate.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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