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Rolled Beefsteak

A rolled steak coated with bread crumbs and herbs, browned and simmered in a sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rolled Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Remove the center bone and excess fat from the steak.

  2. Spread the dressing made of bread crumbs, melted butter, poultry seasoning, salt, and white pepper over the steak.

  3. Press the dressing down firmly, then roll the steak tightly and tie securely with twine.

Brown and cook

  1. In a cast iron skillet, heat the beef drippings or butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the beef roll and turn until browned on all sides.

  3. Transfer the beef roll to a Caloric kettle.

  4. In the skillet, blend the remaining fat with flour, then gradually add boiling water.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, pour over the beef roll, and boil for 15 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the outer meat that is rolled around the dressing and cooked in the gravy.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the melted butter and seasonings to form a moist, soft filling inside the roll.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and helps the crumbs stay moist.
Flour
Blended with the fat to thicken the boiling water into a gravy.
Beef drippings
Fat for browning the outside of the roll, adding meaty flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Brown the roll on all sides. Browning the outside in hot fat creates flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat tastes flatter, and the roll should be turned evenly so no side is left uncoloured.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, beef, flour, 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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