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Mock Duck

A rolled steak stuffed with breadcrumbs, butter, onion, pepper, and salt, simmered for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

  1. Remove the bone from the steak and sew up the holes.

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, butter, chopped onion, pepper, and salt.

  3. Spread the mixture on the meat, roll it up, and sew it together.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the rolled meat in a kettle on the stove, cover tightly, and cook for 3 hours, turning often and adding water as needed.

  2. Once cooked, remove the threads, place the meat on a platter, thicken the gravy slightly, and pour it over the meat.

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 + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the outer meat that becomes tender during long, moist cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and cooking liquid, giving the filling a soft, moist texture.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and keeps the filling tender.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness that deepens as it cooks into the filling and gravy.

The step that matters

Cook tightly covered over low, steady heat with water added as needed. Tough round steak needs long, moist cooking to break down its connective tissue. If the liquid evaporates or the pot is left uncovered, the meat can dry out and toughen before it becomes tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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