Mock Duck

Ingredients:

• 1 Onion; chopped
• 1/2 c Celery; chopped
• 1/2 c Mushroom; chopped
• 1 tb Butter
• 3/4 c Dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp. Savory, dried
• 1/4 tsp. Thyme, dried
• salt & pepper
• 1 lb. Round steak
• 1 tb Vegetable oil
• 3/4 c Beef stock
  

Directions:

1. In a skillet, cook onion, celery and mushrooms in butter until softened.
2. Remove from heat; stir in bread crumbs, savory, thyme, salt and pepper to taste and just enough water or stock to moisten.
3. Pound meat into 1/4 inch thickness.
4. Cut into 4 or 5 serving pieces; spread with stuffing almost to edges.
5. Roll up each from widest sides; secure with string.
6. In skillet, brown rolls in oil.
7. Add stock; cover and simmer for 1 hour, turning and basting occasionally, or bake in 325F oven for 1 hour.

"Today a nonstick fry pan works well, but just as in the 30s, a black cast iron one is great, too. Thicken the gravy with flour if desired."

Recipe serves 4-5

Notes: "With the prairie sloughs dried up and little snow in the winter, there were very few wild birds in the worst years of the 30s. Stuffed, thinly pounded less-tender cuts of beef made an adequate substitute.

Some books called for flank steak, other for round steak. Veal birds are similar, Rouladen, a German dish, is made with meat spread with mustard and wrapped around dill pickle spears.

In many regions of Canada, venison, moose and caribou were used in place of beef. In Newfoundland, savory seasons the stuffing and salt pork tops the meat rolls."

Recipe source: The Thirties chapter in A Century of Canadian Home Cooking

Canadian Recipes