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Mock Duck

A stuffed beef steak filled with bread, pork, sage, onion, marjoram, and salt, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mock Duck

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped bread, pork, sage, onion, sweet marjoram, and salt.

  3. Fill the steak with the dressing and sew it up.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the steak in a pan and add the water.

  2. Cover tightly and cook slowly in the oven for three hours.

  3. Remove the lid, brown the steak quickly, and serve hot.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + marjoramtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,056 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

Rump of beef steak
Forms the main body that is stuffed and slowly braised until tender.
Chopped bread
Absorbs juices from the dressing, giving the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Pork
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, keeping it moist during cooking.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the stuffing as it cooks.
Sage
Contributes a savory, aromatic flavour that suits pork and beef.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and cook slowly. Long, low, covered cooking breaks down the tough connective tissue in rump steak, so the meat becomes tender rather than dry and chewy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, pork, sage, marjoram):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, pork, sage, marjoram. 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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