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Beef Olives

Beef olives are rolled beef pieces seasoned with herbs, breadcrumbs, and egg, simmered in gravy and served over mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Beef Olives

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces, about 3 inches long and ¼ inch thick.

  2. Finely chop the trimmings of meat with the suet and place in a bowl.

  3. Add chopped herbs, bread crumbs, grated lemon rind, salt, and pepper to the bowl.

  4. Beat the egg and mix it into the meat mixture.

Roll and stew

  1. Spread a layer of the mixture on each slice of beef, roll them up, and tie securely with string.

  2. In a saucepan, heat about 1 pint of gravy or stock and add the beef rolls.

  3. Stew gently for about 45 minutes, ensuring the gravy does not boil.

  4. Remove the rolls from the gravy and keep them warm.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix 2 teaspoons of flour with a little cold stock or water, then stir into the gravy until it thickens.

  2. Season the gravy to taste and ensure it is a good brown color.

  3. Serve the beef olives on a bed of mashed potatoes and strain the 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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold cooked beef
Forms the wrapped outer layer and the main body of each roll.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the chopped filling moist and tender during stewing.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds together when rolled and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the filling a softer, cohesive texture.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the beef rolls and potatoes.

The step that matters

Keep the gravy below a boil while stewing. Gentle heat lets the beef and filling become tender without toughening the meat or breaking the rolls apart, while the gravy stays smooth.

“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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