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Mock Duck

A stuffed beef steak served as a mock duck.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mock Duck

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season both sides of the beef steak with salt and pepper.

  2. Prepare stuffing using bread or crackers, with or without oysters, as for turkey.

Assemble and roast

  1. Spread the stuffing on the meat and sew it up.

  2. Roast the stuffed beef for about 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve and enjoy your mock duck.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + oystertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the outer meat that wraps the stuffing and carries the savory flavor of the dish.
Bread or crackers
Makes the stuffing, absorbing juices and adding a soft, moist texture inside the meat.
Oysters
Optional addition to the stuffing, adding a briny, savory flavor.

The step that matters

Spread the stuffing on the meat and sew it up. Stuffing spread too thickly or sewn loosely can shift or leak during roasting. Even coverage and a closed seam keep the filling moist and hold the roll together while the meat cooks.

“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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