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Rolled Steak

A steak rolled with breadcrumbs, herbs, and butter, baked in water to create a moist, flavorful dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

Prepare the roll

  1. Flatten the steak with a hatchet.

  2. Mix breadcrumbs, parsley, sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and butter to form a seasoning roll.

  3. Spread the seasoning on the steak and roll it up tightly.

  4. Bind the steak with fine twine and place it in a pie dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Add boiling water to the dish and cover with another dish.

  2. Bake for 40 minutes, basting frequently.

  3. Remove the cover and let it brown before serving.

  4. Thicken the gravy with a little browned flour and serve hot.

  5. Cut off the twine before serving.

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

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Forms the main body of the dish and is rolled around the seasoning.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the butter and juices in the seasoning, giving a soft, moist filling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the seasoning and helps it spread.
Parsley
Adds fresh, aromatic flavour to the seasoning.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Remove the cover and let it brown. Covered baking traps steam and keeps the surface pale. Uncovering at the end lets dry heat brown the surface through Maillard reactions, which build flavour and colour.

“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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