Skip to main content
Main

Rolled Steak

A beef steak rolled with a breadcrumb and herb forcemeat, baked in stock until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rolled Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Flatten the steak and shape it for rolling.

  2. Mix the breadcrumbs, onion, herbs, and parsley very finely to make the forcemeat.

  3. Spread a layer of forcemeat on the steak, roll it up, and bind it with twine.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the rolled steak in a pie dish with boiling water or stock, cover, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes, basting occasionally.

  2. Remove the cover and let it brown for a few minutes at the end.

  3. Flavor and thicken the gravy, then 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that cooks tender in liquid.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the forcemeat so it holds together inside the roll.
Onion
Adds savory flavor and moisture to the forcemeat as it softens during cooking.
Butter or dripping
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Rolling and binding the steak. If the forcemeat is spread unevenly or the roll is loose, filling can leak or fall out during baking. A tight, even roll keeps the filling inside and cooks the meat evenly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

You might also like

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