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Beef Roll

A rolled beef and bacon mixture baked in buttered paper and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Roll

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the round steak and bacon finely.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat with eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, and bread crumbs.

Roll and bake

  1. Roll the mixture tightly in buttered brown paper.

  2. Place the roll in a pan with a little water.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 ½ hours.

Serve

  1. Transfer the roll to a platter.

  2. Pour tomato sauce over the roll.

  3. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Round steak
Forms the main body of the roll and provides the meaty texture.
Bacon
Adds fat that keeps the meat moist and adds savory flavor during baking.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and bread crumbs so the roll holds its shape when sliced.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat, helping the filling stay tender and hold together.

The step that matters

Rolling the mixture tightly. A tight, even roll keeps the filling compact so it holds its shape during baking and slices cleanly. Loose rolling lets the mixture spread and dry unevenly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, bread, butter, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, bread, butter, 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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