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Beef Olives

Thin slices of beef rolled around minced herbs and seasoning, then stewed gently with bacon and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 25 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup 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

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Have the steaks cut rather thin.

  2. Slightly beat them to make them level.

  3. Cut them into 6 or 7 pieces.

  4. Brush over with egg.

  5. Sprinkle with herbs, which should be very finely minced.

  6. Season with pepper and salt.

  7. Roll up the pieces tightly and fasten with a small skewer.

Stew

  1. Put the stock in a stewpan that will exactly hold them, so they are pressed together and keep their shape better.

  2. Lay in the rolls of meat, cover them with the bacon cut in thin slices, and put a piece of paper over that.

  3. Stew them very gently for full 2 hours, as the slower they are done the better.

Finish and serve

  1. Take them out and remove the skewers.

  2. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour, and flavour with any store sauce that may be preferred.

  3. Give one boil, pour over the meat, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

420Calories
39 gProtein
24 gFat
10 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 11 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0
Liquornot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mushroom + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during slow stewing.
Egg
Brushed on the beef to help the herbs and seasoning adhere to the surface.
Bacon
Lies over the rolls during stewing, adding fat and savoury flavour to the stock.
Stock
Cooking liquid that gently braises the rolls and becomes the base of the gravy.
Butter and flour (in the method)
Combined to thicken the gravy so it coats the meat.

The step that matters

Stew very gently for the full 2 hours. Low, slow heat lets the connective tissue in the beef break down gradually, so the meat becomes tender without toughening. Rushing with a hard boil would make the meat tough and dry.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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