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New York Mock Duck

A stuffed rump steak roasted and baked to imitate duck.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

New York Mock Duck

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

  1. Procure a good rump steak and fill it with duck stuffing, bread, sweet salt pork, sage, chopped onion, pepper, and salt.

  2. Roll it up tightly, skewer the ends, and tie a string around the middle.

Cook

  1. Simmer in a covered pan with a little stock for two hours.

  2. Remove from the pan and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for another hour without cover.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  5. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 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 steak
Forms the outer wrap that holds the stuffing and becomes tender during long, slow cooking.
Duck stuffing
Provides the savory filling that gives the dish its flavor and moisture.
Bread
Absorbs juices and fat from the filling, keeping the stuffing moist and binding it together.
Sweet salt pork
Adds fat that melts during cooking, enriching the filling and keeping it moist.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stuffing as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmering in a covered pan. Gentle, covered simmering with stock keeps the meat moist and breaks down its connective tissue; boiling hard would toughen the meat and dry it out.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pork, sage, 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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