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Beef Steak Roll

A beef steak roll filled with lamb kidneys, seasoned with herbs, baked in a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Steak Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Trim kidneys of all fat, cords, and veins, then cut into small pieces.

  2. Spread kidney pieces thinly over one side of the steak, then sprinkle with cracker crumbs, onion, and seasonings.

  3. Roll up the steak tightly and tie with a cord.

Brown and braise

  1. Brown the roll in butter, then remove it from the pan.

  2. Make a gravy by stirring in the flour, then adding water and sugar.

  3. Put the roll in the gravy and cook slowly in a covered baking dish until tender.

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 + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Flank or round steak
Forms the outer roll and becomes tender during slow cooking.
Lamb kidneys
Adds rich, savory flavor and body to the filling inside the roll.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb juices and help hold the filling together inside the roll.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks around the roll.
Butter
Adds fat and browning to the outside of the roll.

The step that matters

Cook slowly in a covered dish until tender. Round and flank steak are lean, tough cuts. Slow, moist heat breaks down connective tissue, so covering the dish and cooking gently keeps the meat from drying out while it becomes tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, thyme, sage, lamb, flour, sugar, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, thyme, sage, lamb, flour, sugar, butter. 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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