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Beef Olives

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme 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

  1. Cut the steak into eight thin fillets, trimming them to the same size.

  2. Lay a thin piece of bacon on each fillet.

  3. Chop the trimmings of meat and bacon very fine, along with the onion.

  4. Peel the olives without breaking them and scrape the stones.

  5. Combine the chopped onion, meat trimmings, bacon, bread crumbs, herbs, pepper, and salt in a bowl.

  6. Moisten the mixture with egg and place a little on each fillet.

  7. Roll up the fillets and tie them with string or secure with skewers.

  8. Fry the rolled fillets until browned.

  9. Make 1 pint of brown gravy, add the olives, and season to taste.

  10. Stew until the olives are tender.

  11. Remove the skewers, place the beef olives on a hot dish, and top each with an olive.

  12. Strain the gravy over the beef olives, garnish with lemon slices or parsley, and serve.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, marjoram, thyme, pepper, olive):

  1. Sagefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Winter savoryfits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, marjoram, thyme, pepper, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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