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Beef Olives

Beef Olives are beef slices rolled with forcemeat, browned and stewed in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rolls

  1. Beat the beef slices with a pestle.

  2. Make a forcemeat by mixing bread crumbs, bacon, parsley, onion, suet, mace, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

  3. Spread a thin layer of forcemeat over each beef slice and roll them tightly.

  4. Secure the rolls with skewers.

  5. Cook the rolls over a fire, turning until browned.

Make the gravy and stew

  1. Prepare gravy by thickening it with brown flour and butter.

  2. Add red wine and mushroom ketchup to the gravy.

  3. Place the beef rolls in the gravy and stew until tender.

  4. Garnish with forcemeat balls.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fat rump beef
Forms the wrapped outer layer that becomes tender during stewing.
Bread crumbs
Bind the forcemeat and give it a soft, moist body.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together inside the rolls.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich during cooking.
Brown flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the rolls.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Cook the rolls over a fire, turning until browned. Browning the outside builds surface flavour through the Maillard reaction, and the rolls must be sealed by skewers so the forcemeat stays inside during cooking.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, parsley, onion, pepper, egg, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, parsley, onion, pepper, egg, flour. 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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