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Olives, Beef
Cut a couple of pounds of rump-steak into very thin slices, about four inches long and two inches broad. Have ready a nice forcemeat made of bread-crumbs, suet, parsley, herbs, egg, and plenty of pepper and salt. Put a little forcemeat on each piece of steak, roll it up tightly, fasten it with a small skewer or piece of string, dip the rolls into egg and bread-crumbs, and fry them in hot fat until they are slightly browned. Drain the fat away, and stew them for about half an hour in a pint or rather less of stock. If the stock is very poor, a quarter of a pound of gravy beef will be required. Just before serving, thicken the gravy with a little flour, and add some ketchup, or three dessert-spoonfuls of sherry or port. Time, five minutes to fry. Sufficient for six persons. Cost, 3s.
OLIVES, BEEF (another way). (See BEEF OLIVES.)
A straightforward braise of stuffed beef rolls, written for cooks who already knew what forcemeat was and how long beef takes to soften. Two things need attention: the stuffing has no quantities, and the half-hour stew is far too short.
- Beat the slices thinThe recipe asks for very thin slices, and the four inches by two is length and breadth, not thickness. Put each slice between sheets of plastic or parchment and beat it to about an eighth of an inch, which also breaks down the muscle fibre and helps the roll stay tender.
- The forcemeat, in numbersThe original gives none. A workable version for 2 lb of beef: 4 oz fresh breadcrumbs, 2 oz shredded suet, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, a teaspoon of mixed dried herbs (thyme and marjoram), one egg to bind, and a generous grind of pepper with a teaspoon of salt. Grated lemon zest is a common addition in Victorian forcemeats and is worth including.
- SuetShredded beef suet is still sold in the UK and in some butchers elsewhere. Frozen butter grated on the coarse side of a box grater is the closest substitute; it gives a slightly softer stuffing.
- Half an hour is not enoughHalf an hour may be short -- rump wrapped around a wet stuffing can still be firm after thirty minutes. If the rolls are not tender, keep them at a bare simmer, or covered in a low oven, until they are, topping up the stock if it reduces too far.
- Egg-and-crumb then stewThe coating will soften completely in the braise, so it is there for colour and body in the gravy rather than crispness. Brown the rolls hard in a few minutes over good heat and no longer, as the recipe says, then pour off the fat before the stock goes in.
- "Gravy beef"Shin or leg of beef, added to enrich a thin stock. If you are using a decent brown stock or a well-made bouillon, skip it; otherwise a 4 oz piece of shin simmered alongside does the job.
- Ketchup meant mushroom or walnutIn Victorian British cookery, unqualified "ketchup" generally means mushroom or walnut ketchup, a thin dark salty condiment, not tomato. A tablespoon of mushroom ketchup, or Worcestershire sauce at a pinch, gives the intended savoury depth. Tomato ketchup will make the sauce sweet.
- Skewers and stringCount them in and count them out. Remove every skewer before the dish goes to the table, and thicken the sauce with a beurre manié rather than raw flour so it does not go lumpy at the last minute.
- Yield and costTwo pounds of steak into six portions is modest by modern standards; four is more realistic as a main course with potatoes. The 3s. is Victorian shillings, of no use now beyond showing this was an economical way to stretch a small piece of steak.
Beef olives contain no olives. The name is generally traced to the medieval English alows or aloes de beef, thin slices of meat spread with stuffing and rolled, the word itself probably reshaped over time by association with the olive because of the finished shape. Equivalents exist all over Europe: French paupiettes, German Rouladen, Italian involtini. The technique earns its place in a Victorian household dictionary because it is thrift dressed as a dinner dish, taking two pounds of rump, padding it out with bread and suet, and turning it into six servings with a made gravy. Cassell's cross-reference at the end, pointing the reader from OLIVES, BEEF to BEEF OLIVES, is a reminder that these dictionaries were built for looking things up under whatever word came to mind first.