Skip to main content
Main

Beefsteak Rolls

Beefsteak rolls are seasoned round steak rolled, coated with butter and egg, baked, and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Beefsteak Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the steak

  1. Pound the round steak gently.

  2. Spread your preferred dressing over the steak.

  3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a few bits of butter.

  4. Roll the steak tightly and tie it securely.

Glaze and bake

  1. Spread 2 tablespoons of butter over the rolled steak.

  2. Wash the steak with the beaten egg.

  3. Place water in a baking pan and lay the steak in it without touching the water.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 30 minutes, basting often.

Serve

  1. Make a brown gravy and serve hot.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 becomes tender and sliceable when cooked slowly with moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface and helps the outside brown during baking.
Egg
Brushed on the surface, it helps the outside set and take on a golden color.

The step that matters

Keep the steak off the water in the pan. The water in the pan produces steam that keeps the roll moist while it bakes. If the steak sits in or touches the water, the bottom soaks and can turn soggy instead of browning.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes