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Mock Quail on Toast

Pork shanks simmered in pot liquor and cream, served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 Quail on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shanks

  1. Scrape the pork shanks.

  2. Wash the pork shanks.

  3. Dry the pork shanks.

  4. Place a plate in the bottom of an iron kettle.

  5. Put the shanks on the plate.

  6. Pour boiling water over the shanks.

  7. Add salt to the water.

  8. Boil until the meat falls from the bones.

  9. Pour off the liquid into a pan.

  10. Set the meat aside.

Steam the meat

  1. Select unbroken pieces of meat about 3 inches long.

  2. Place the pieces in a steamer over hot salted water.

Make the sauce

  1. Reheat 1 cup of pot liquor with ½ cup of cream, ¼ teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of white pepper, and nutmeg if desired.

  2. Mix ½ tablespoon of cornstarch with a little milk and add the mixture to the sauce.

  3. Boil briefly.

Serve on toast

  1. Toast the bread.

  2. Butter it slightly.

  3. Place a piece of meat on each slice.

  4. Pour the sauce over the toast.

  5. Serve.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

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

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork shanks
Provide the tender meat and, as they cook, body-giving collagen that enriches the pot liquor.
Pot liquor
Carries the savoury flavour from the boiled shanks into the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty texture to the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce when heated, giving it body to cling to the meat and toast.
White bread
Forms the base that soaks up the sauce and supports the meat.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the toast and helps it brown lightly.

The step that matters

Boil briefly after adding the cornstarch. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, so the sauce stays thin if it is not heated enough. Boiling the cream hard for too long can cause it to separate, so keep this step brief.

“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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