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Beef Boll, Or, Canellon Be Bceuf.

A beef and bacon roulade simmered in butter with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Boll, Or, Canellon Be Bceuf.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the chopped beef and bacon thoroughly in a bowl.

  2. Season the mixture with black pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg.

  3. Bind and tie the meat closely to prevent stuffing from escaping.

Cook

  1. Cook the tied meat in a large stewpan with 4 cups of butter until it boils.

  2. Add the meat and let it simmer for 5 to 6 hours, turning every 30 minutes.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beef + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,495 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Forms the main body of the roulade and gives it a meaty, tender bite.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the lean meat moist during long cooking.
Butter (in the method)
Provides fat for richness and helps carry flavor during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Long, gentle simmer with regular turning. Cooking for 5 to 6 hours at a low simmer lets tough connective tissue break down slowly while keeping the meat tender. Turning every 30 minutes helps the roll cook evenly and keeps it from drying or sticking on one side.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper. 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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