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Beef Olives

Beef Olives are beef slices rolled with a forcemeat mixture 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 olives

  1. Beat the beef slices with a pestle until tender.

  2. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, chopped bacon, parsley, onion, shredded suet, mace, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

  3. Spread a thin layer of the forcemeat mixture over each beef slice.

  4. Roll the beef slices tightly and secure with skewers.

Cook and serve

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

  2. In a pot, combine gravy, brown flour, butter, red wine, and mushroom ketchup.

  3. Add the beef rolls to the pot and stew until tender.

  4. Garnish with forcemeat balls 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. 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 wrapper that becomes tender during stewing around the filling.
Bread crumbs
Bind the forcemeat and give it a soft, moist body.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat together and add richness to the filling.
Shredded suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich during cooking.
Brown flour
Thickens the gravy and helps it cling to the rolls.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Stew the rolls until tender. Rump beef is a tough cut, and it needs slow, moist heat over time to break down its connective tissue. Stopping early leaves the rolls chewy, so they should be checked for tenderness before serving.

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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