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Porcvjnne of the Fat Ribs of Beef

Rolled beef ribs larded with bacon and tongue, baked with a veal caul, and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,031 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Bone the flat ribs of beef and beat them for 30 minutes with a rolling pin.

  2. Rub the meat with the yolks of eggs.

  3. Sprinkle the meat with bread crumbs, parsley, leeks, sweet marjoram, finely shredded lemon peel, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  4. Roll the meat tightly.

  5. Bind the meat securely.

  6. Lard the meat with bacon.

  7. Layer the meat with cold boiled tongue, pickled cucumbers, and lemon peel in rows until fully larded.

  8. Split the meat.

Bake

  1. Place the meat in a deep pot with 1 pint of water.

  2. Cover the meat with a caul of veal to prevent scorching.

  3. Tie the caul down with strong paper.

  4. Bake in the oven.

  5. Once cooked, skim off the fat.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy into a saucepan.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of red wine, 2 tablespoons of browning, 1 tablespoon of mushroom ketchup, and juice from ½ lemon to the gravy.

  3. Thicken the gravy with a lump of butter rolled in flour.

  4. Serve the meat with gravy poured over it.

  5. Garnish with forcemeat balls and horseradish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + breadtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

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

  3. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together957 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Marjoram + nutmegtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together687 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

Fat ribs of beef
Forms the main body of the dish, which is rolled, larded and braised.
Yolks of 4 eggs
Rubbed on the meat, where the yolks help bind the stuffing and add richness.
Bacon
Lardons threaded through the meat add fat and flavour as it cooks.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the gravy.
Butter
Rolled in flour and used as a lump to thicken the gravy and add richness.
Flour
Coats the butter so it thickens the gravy smoothly.

The step that matters

Tie the caul down with strong paper. Veal caul covers the meat to prevent scorching; if it is not secured, it can shift or burn during the long bake, leaving the exposed surface dry and dark.

Flavor stand-ins for the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, bread, parsley, marjoram, lemon, nutmeg):

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, bread, parsley, marjoram, lemon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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