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Beef Olives

Beef Olives are rolled beef slices wrapped in bacon, baked in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Olives

serves 6

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rolls

  1. Beat the beef slices well.

  2. Brush them with egg.

  3. Sprinkle with sweet herbs and bread crumbs.

  4. Season with pepper and salt.

  5. Roll them tightly and tie with kitchen twine.

Cook

  1. Place gravy or broth in a stew pan that fits the rolls.

  2. Cover with bacon slices and paper.

  3. Cook gently on a slow fire for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve six rolls around a dish with one in the center, and pour gravy sauce over them.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the wrapped outer layer that becomes tender during slow cooking.
Egg
Acts as a binder that helps the herbs and crumbs stick to the beef.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help hold the filling together inside the roll.
Fat bacon
Melts slowly over the rolls, adding fat and savory flavor to the cooking liquid.
Gravy or broth
Provides the cooking liquid that keeps the rolls moist and forms the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook gently on a slow fire. Beef from the rump is lean and tough, so a gentle, low simmer over long time breaks down connective tissue. Boiling hard would toughen the meat and dry it out.

“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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