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Beef Rolls

Beef rolls are sliced roast beef rolled with a seasoned trimmings and fat mixture, fried and simmered in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Beef Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut thin slices from cold roast beef, about 2.5 by 4 inches.

  2. Chop the trimmings and fat, using 1 tablespoon for each slice.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and herbs, then mix in cracker crumbs.

  4. Spread the mixture on each slice nearly to the edge, roll up, and tie.

Brown and simmer

  1. Dredge the rolls in salt, pepper, and flour, then fry in drippings or salt pork fat until browned.

  2. In a stew pan, add 2 tablespoons of flour to the remaining fat and cook until brown.

  3. Pour in 1 pint of hot water, season, and pour over the rolls.

  4. Simmer until the rolls are tender, then remove strings and serve on a platter with gravy.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

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

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

  3. Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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

Cold roast beef
Forms the wrapping around the filling and gives the rolls their main meaty flavor.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb fat and juices from the chopped trimmings, helping the filling hold together.
Flour
Coats the rolls and, browned in the fat, thickens the liquid into a gravy.
Drippings or salt pork fat
Fries the rolls and adds browning and savory richness to the surface.

The step that matters

Simmer until the rolls are tender. Beef rolls need slow, moist heat so the connective tissue softens; cooking too hard can toughen the meat and leave the gravy uneven.

“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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