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To Make Beef Olives

A rolled beef steak coated in breadcrumbs and baked, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 221 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

To Make Beef Olives

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the rump steak with a rolling pin until tender.

  2. Season the steak with pepper, coarse sea salt, parsley, shallot, winter savory, beef suet, and breadcrumbs.

  3. Bind the mixture with the egg.

  4. Spread the mixture on the steak.

  5. Place a thin rasher of bacon on top.

  6. Add more seasoning.

Roll and coat

  1. Roll the steak tightly into the shape of a goose egg.

  2. Fasten the roll with a small skewer.

  3. Wash the rolled steak with egg.

  4. Coat it in breadcrumbs.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in a Dutch oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.

  2. Serve with a good gravy.

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. Shallot + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together221 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together863 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + winter savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Forms the outer wrap and provides the beef flavour and main body of each olive.
Egg
Binds the filling together and, brushed on the outside, helps the breadcrumbs adhere.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and carries flavour as it cooks.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture in the filling and form a crisp, browned coating outside.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the filling and moistens the meat as it roasts.

The step that matters

Rolling and fastening the steak. A loose or thin roll can open or dry out in the oven. Tight rolling keeps the filling inside and an even shape cooks through at the same rate, while the skewer holds the seam closed during roasting.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, winter savory, beef, 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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