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Beef Olives

Beef rolled with cracker crumbs, herbs, and salt pork, simmered in a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the beef into thin slices.

  2. Remove all fat, chopping it finely.

  3. Mix cracker crumbs, chopped fat, ½ teaspoon salt, ⅓ teaspoon pepper, herbs, and cold water.

  4. Cut beef slices into pieces about 4 inches long and 3 inches wide.

  5. Season with remaining salt and pepper.

  6. Spread the cracker mixture on the beef strips.

  7. Roll them up, tying with soft cotton.

Brown and braise

  1. Roll the beef rolls in flour.

  2. Slice the salt pork.

  3. Fry until crisp and brown, then remove from the pan.

  4. Fry the beef rolls in the remaining fat until brown on all sides.

  5. Place them in a small stewpan.

  6. In the frying pan, stir remaining flour until brown.

  7. Gradually add 1 pint of cold water, stirring until it boils.

  8. Pour the gravy over the beef rolls.

  9. Cover.

  10. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  11. Remove the strings from the beef rolls.

  12. Arrange on a warm platter, pouring the gravy over them.

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 + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Forms the wrapped outer layer and becomes tender during long, gentle simmering.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and liquid, giving the stuffing body and holding it inside the rolls.
Salt pork
Renders fat for frying the rolls and adds savory richness to the dish.
Flour
Coats the rolls for browning and, when browned, thickens the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2 hours. A gentle simmer lets the tough round beef break down slowly and become tender. A hard boil would toughen the meat and can make the gravy separate or scorch.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, flour, pork, summer savory):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, flour, pork, summer savory. 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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