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Beef Olives

Beef olives are rolled beef pieces stuffed with suet, breadcrumbs, herbs, lemon zest, and egg, simmered in stock.

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

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef into pieces ½ inch thick, 4 inches long, and 2½ inches wide.

  2. Moisten a flat chopper with water and gently pound the beef pieces.

Make the stuffing

  1. Mince any trimmings from the meat and place in a bowl.

  2. Finely chop the suet and add to the bowl.

  3. Sift the stale bread crumbs into the bowl.

  4. Chop the parsley, thyme, and marjoram, then add to the mixture.

  5. Grate in lemon zest and a pinch of nutmeg, then season with salt and pepper.

  6. Add the egg and mix everything well with a wooden spoon.

  7. Shape some of the mixture into cork shapes with your hands.

Roll and cook

  1. Place the stuffing in the center of each beef piece and roll them up tightly.

  2. Tie each roll with twine.

  3. Place the rolls in a stew pan with the stock.

  4. Simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the beef olives on a hot dish with sauce around the edge and fill the center with young or mashed potatoes or spinach.

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

Rump steak or fillet of beef
Forms the thin wrapper that holds the stuffing and becomes tender during simmering.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during cooking.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body so it holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when rolled and simmered.
Stock
Gently cooks the rolls in liquid, keeping them moist and flavouring the sauce.

The step that matters

Rolling and tying the rolls tightly. If the rolls are loose, the stuffing can spill out or swell and loosen during simmering. Tight rolls and secure twine keep the filling enclosed and the shape even as the beef softens.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, parsley, thyme, marjoram, lemon, egg):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, parsley, thyme, marjoram, lemon, 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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