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Beef Olives

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Beef Olives

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the beef on a board and cut it into slices about ½ inch thick and 4 inches long.

  2. Beat the slices with a wet rolling pin to flatten them.

  3. Chop the trimmings finely and place them in a bowl.

  4. Chop the beef suet finely after removing the skin.

  5. Rub the bread through a sieve to obtain 3 ounces of bread crumbs.

  6. Chop the parsley finely.

  7. Chop the thyme and marjoram finely.

  8. Combine the suet, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, and marjoram with the chopped beef in the bowl.

  9. Grate the lemon rind and nutmeg into the mixture.

  10. Season with salt and pepper, add the egg, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

  11. Shape the mixture into pieces the size of a cork.

  12. Roll up each slice of beef around the mixture.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, parsley, thyme, marjoram, lemon, pepper):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, parsley, thyme, marjoram, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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