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Beef Olives

Beef Olives are rolled beef slices seasoned, browned, and simmered in a gravy with ketchup, browning sauce, and lemon pickle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Beef Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Beat the beef slices with a rolling pin.

  2. Rub the slices with egg yolk, pepper, salt, mace, breadcrumbs, marrow, parsley, and lemon zest.

  3. Roll the beef slices tightly and secure them closed.

Brown and braise

  1. Brown the rolls in front of the fire.

  2. Place the browned rolls in a roasting pan with gravy, ketchup, browning sauce, and lemon pickle.

  3. Thicken the sauce with a little butter mixed with flour.

Serve

  1. Serve with optional force-meat balls, mushrooms, or hard-boiled egg yolks.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Beef rump
Forms the outer wrap that is rolled around the filling and becomes tender when cooked.
Egg yolk
Binds the breadcrumb filling together so it holds its shape inside the roll.
Breadcrumbs
Absorbs moisture and gives the filling body and a soft texture.
Marrow
Adds richness and fat, keeping the filling moist and flavourful during cooking.
Gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that moistens the rolls and forms the sauce.
Butter and flour
Thickens the sauce to a smooth, coating consistency.

The step that matters

Rolling and securing the beef tightly. If the rolls are loose, the filling can escape and the rolls can open during browning and braising. Tight rolls with a firm closure keep the filling inside and help the meat cook evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, pepper, parsley, lemon, ketchup, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, pepper, parsley, lemon, ketchup, sauce. 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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