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Mock Brawn

A roasted boar shoulder stuffed with a forcemeat of veal, ham, and suet, baked with beer and Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mock Brawn

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 the boar

  1. Remove the blade bone from the shoulder and boil it gently for 2 hours or more, depending on the age of the boar.

  2. Season the meat with black pepper, cayenne, coarse sea salt, allspice, minced onion, and thyme.

  3. Let it marinate overnight.

Make and stuff the forcemeat

  1. Prepare a forcemeat by mixing pounded veal, ham, beef suet, parsley, thyme, onion, lemon peel, salt, nutmeg, white pepper, and cayenne. Bind with the beaten egg.

  2. Stuff the forcemeat into the cavity where the bone was removed.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed meat in a deep pan, brown side down, on twigs or small sticks to prevent sticking.

  2. Pour in the beer and bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C).

  3. When nearly done, remove from the oven. Skim off excess fat.

  4. Add the Madeira and lemon juice. Return to the oven.

  5. Bake until tender, about 6 to 7 hours for an older boar.

  6. 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boar shoulder
Forms the main meat; long gentle cooking breaks down connective tissue to make it tender.
Pounded veal
Provides a fine, binding base for the forcemeat stuffing, giving it a smooth texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich during long baking.
Egg
Binds the forcemeat so it holds together when sliced.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and its sugars help the pan juices brown.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and Madeira sauce.

The step that matters

Skimming fat before adding Madeira and lemon juice. Excess rendered fat would make the pan sauce greasy and dull its flavour, so it is removed before the liquids are added and the roast returns to the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, allspice, thyme, veal, ham, beef, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, thyme, veal, ham, beef, parsley. 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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