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Mock Duck.— Mrs. John Wilder

A stuffed steak made with bread, bacon, onion, herbs, butter, and egg, cooked in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Duck.— Mrs. John Wilder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the large bone from the steak and pound the beef.

  2. Make a dressing with soaked bread, fried and chopped bacon, chopped onion, sage, summer savory, butter, salt, and pepper.

Stuff and cook

  1. Stuff the dressing into the steak, reserving some for the gravy, and tie it tightly.

  2. Beat the egg and pour it over the steak, adding lumps of butter on top.

  3. Place the steak in a pan with water, ensuring the water does not touch it, and baste often.

  4. Cook for about 1 hour.

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 + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Onion + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the outer meat that wraps and holds the dressing while it cooks.
Bread
Soaked bread gives the dressing moisture and a soft, tender body.
Bacon
Fat rendered from the bacon adds savory flavor and richness to the dressing.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma to the dressing as it softens and cooks.
Egg
Binds the stuffing and the poured coating, helping it set as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, flavor, and browning on the outside of the steak.

The step that matters

Keep the water below the steak. If the water touches the steak, the meat boils rather than roasts, which leads to a gray, soggy exterior. Basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sage, summer savory, butter, pepper, egg. 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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