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Rolled Beef

A rolled flank of beef cured with salt, saltpetre, sugar, herbs, and spices, then boiled and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Rolled Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Pound the salt, saltpetre, sugar, herbs, parsley, cloves, mace, peppercorns, and garlic to a powder.

  2. Bone and skin the flank of beef.

  3. Rub the beef with the powder.

  4. Turn the beef daily for three days.

  5. Wash and dry the beef.

Roll and cook

  1. Spread a layer of veal forcemeat inside.

  2. Roll the beef tightly.

  3. Bind the rolled beef.

  4. Tie it in a cloth.

  5. Place the rolled beef in a saucepan with boiling water to cover.

  6. Add carrot, onion, sweet herbs, mace, and celery to the saucepan.

  7. Boil for one minute.

  8. Skim the surface.

  9. Simmer gently until the beef is cooked.

  10. Let the beef cool in the liquid.

  11. Press it between two dishes with a weight until cold.

Glaze and serve

  1. Brush the beef with liquid glaze.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

  3. Warm the pressed beef in some of the cooking liquid.

  4. Skim the liquid.

  5. Add brown thickening, sherry, and any additional seasoning.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the beef during curing.
Saltpetre
Helps the beef keep its pink colour during curing.
Moist sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
Flank beef
Forms the main body of the roll, which is cooked until tender.
Veal forcemeat
Adds moisture and richness inside the lean beef roll.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the beef is cooked. Boiling vigorously toughens the meat's protein and can break up the roll, so a gentle simmer keeps the beef tender and intact.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, thyme, basil, marjoram, parsley, mace, garlic):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, thyme, basil, marjoram, parsley, mace, garlic. 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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