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Beef Steak, Roasted, and Stuffed

A roasted beef steak stuffed with a savory mixture of ham, herbs, and mushrooms, served with brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef Steak, Roasted, and Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the forcemeat

  1. Melt 1 ounce of butter in a clean frying pan.

  2. Add minced ham, bay leaf, parsley, shallots, clove, mace, and mushrooms to the pan and fry the mixture briefly.

  3. Squeeze excess milk from the soaked rolls and place the rolls in a stewpan.

  4. Add 3-4 tablespoons of rich stock to the rolls.

  5. Pour ½ pint of stock into the frying pan and boil the stock for 20 minutes.

  6. Strain the stock over the rolls and place the stewpan over heat.

  7. Stir in a little butter until dry, then add 2 egg yolks to bind the mixture.

Stuff and roast

  1. Season the steak with pepper and salt.

  2. Roll the steak tightly with the forcemeat inside.

  3. Roast the stuffed steak for 1.5 hours over a clear fire, basting it constantly with butter.

  4. Serve with brown 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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Forms the main meat that is rolled around the stuffing and cooks to tender slices.
French rolls
Soaked in milk, they absorb liquid and give the forcemeat body and a soft crumb.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together when the steak is rolled and sliced.
Shallots
Add a mild savoury sweetness and aroma to the forcemeat.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the forcemeat.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the outside of the steak while it roasts.

The step that matters

Stir in butter until the forcemeat is dry, then bind with egg yolks. If the soaked-roll mixture stays wet, it will not hold its shape when rolled and may leak during roasting. Drying it first lets the yolks bind it into a firm stuffing.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parsley, shallot, clove, mushroom, milk):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parsley, shallot, clove, mushroom, milk. 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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