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Rolled Beef

A rolled steak filled with breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, bacon, and spices, baked in dripping and served with brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rolled Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Flatten the steak with a rolling pin and trim off the fat.

  2. Flour the meat and spread it with the forcemeat mixture.

  3. Mix breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, parsley, onion, bacon, lemon peel, pepper, and salt in a bowl. Moisten the mixture with beaten egg or milk to form a stiff paste.

Roll and bake

  1. Roll up the meat and tie it with narrow tape at each end and in the middle.

  2. Place the rolled meat on a baking tin and pour melted dripping over it. Add unmelted dripping around the meat and bake at 350°F (175°C) until browned.

  3. Baste the meat frequently and cover with greased paper if browning too quickly.

Serve

  1. Once done, remove the tape and pour thickened brown sauce over the meat and around the dish.

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

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 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

Tender steak
Forms the outer wrapper that holds the filling and cooks into the tender meat of the roll.
Fine breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat a soft, binding body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the forcemeat into a stiff paste that holds its shape when rolled.
Fat bacon
Contributes fat and savoury flavour to the filling.
Dripping
Fat that bastes the meat, promoting even browning and a glossy crust.

The step that matters

Roll up the meat and tie it firmly. If the roll is loose or the ties are weak, the filling can escape and the meat may cook unevenly. Tying at several points keeps the roll compact so it holds its shape and heats through evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, lemon, pepper, egg):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, lemon, pepper, egg. 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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