Beef Olives Recipe

Bookmarks

• What are Beef Olives?
• Why are They Called Beef Olives?
• Research
• Beef Olives over the centuries
• Our Vintage Beef Olives Recipe 
• Video
• Beef olives cooking time
• Stovetop vs Oven
• What to Serve with Beef Olives
• Fancy something more modern?
• Recipe Card
• Notes:
• Resources:

What are Beef Olives?

Recipes for Beef Olives date back hundreds of years, with the oldest formula discovered in a 15th-century medieval cookbook. Naturally, the recipe has evolved over the years; still, from the past days, it consists of thinly cut meat filled with savoury stuffing, wrapped up in cigar-shaped parcels, slowly roasted or stewed and served with a hearty gravy.

Why are They Called Beef Olives?

It is a relevant question for food historians, considering that the recipe doesn't contain olives.

A few theories suggest that the rolled meat parcels resemble stuffed olives, while others believe the name happened to be a corruption of Alouette, a french word for a Lark (small bird).

I quite like the bird theory. The fact that two of the oldest British recipes dubiously resembling Beef Olives are called 'Alows de Beef' (Two 15th Century Cookbooks 1440) or 'Allowes of Mutton' (The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin 1594) makes this theory more viable (check the notes below the article for more info).

It's easy to find similar recipes of stuffed beef in other European countries that contain a word for a bird in their names for their resemblance with a small stuffed bird:

French - Alouette de boeuf (Beef Lark); alouettes sans tête (Headless Larks)
Belgien - Oiseau sans tête (Headless bird)
Czech - Španělský ptáček (Spanish bird)

Research

Using various online archives, I found eleven Beef Olive recipes in cookbooks published between 1440 and 1932.

Here is a copy of an almost 600-year-old recipe. The text is hard to read, so I'm adding a loose translation I pulled together with the help of ChatGPT and The glossary of medieval cooking terms.

Medieval Recipe for Alows de Beef

The recipe comes from the book: Two 15th Century Cookbooks, Anonymous around 1440; transcriptions were made in 1888 by Thomas Austin; the text was copied from The Foods of England archive.  

"Alows de Beef or de Motoun

Take fayre Bef of şe quyschons, - . [Cushions. ] & motoun of şe bottes, & kytte in şe maner of Stekys; şan take raw Percely, & Oynonys smal y-scredde, & ?olkys of Eyroun soşe hard, & Marow or swette, & hew alle şes to-geder smal; şan caste şer-on poudere of Gyngere & Saffroun, & tolle hem to-gederys with şin hond, & lay hem on şe Stekys al a-brode, & caste Salt şer-to; şen rolle to-gederys, & putte hem on a round spete, & roste hem til şey ben y-now; şan lay hem in a dysshe, & pore şer-on Vynegre & a lityl verious, & pouder Pepir şer-on y-now, & Gyngere, & Canelle, & a fewe ?olkys of hard Eyroun y-kremyd şer-on; & serue forth."

Translation

Alows de Beef or de Motoun

Take good quality beef or mutton (preferably rump cut), and cut it in the manner of steaks; then take raw parsley and small onions - shredded, yolks of hard-boiled eggs, and marrow or suet, and chop all together; add powdered ginger and saffron, rub them together with your hand, spread it on the steaks, and sprinkle with salt; roll the meat, put it on a round spit, and roast it until the meat is done; then lay them in a dish, pour vinegar and a small amount of verjuice over them, and finish with powdered pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and a few crumbled yolks of hard-boiled eggs; and serve."

Surely, this medieval recipe for Alows de Beef is an old version of Beef Olives. The formula is not very different from the 19th-century recipes.

The only thing that seems to be a bit odd is pouring vinegar and verjuice over the cooked meat before serving. On the other hand, I know that stuffed beef nicely pairs with pickled vegetables like gherkins, which makes me think that adding some sourness might not be a completely crazy combination.

Beef Olives over the centuries

Meat

The main ingredient for Olives had remained the same - a thinly cut and tenderised piece of meat (often beef, eventually mutton or veal), usually raw. However, I also found two recipes that used sliced, pre-cooked cold beef (The encyclopædia of practical cookery 1891).  

Stuffing

The ingredients for stuffing can significantly vary from one recipe to another. Sometimes, the recipe only asks to sprinkle the meat with chopped herbs, salt and pepper. 

In contrast, more elaborate recipes make stuffing from components like suet, beef off-cuts, bacon, herbs, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, nutmeg, shallot, egg and even anchovies.

I also found variations for meat-free stuffing in Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery (1883). My eyes caught a recipe using onion, mushrooms and mashed potatoes mixed with cream and egg yolks.  

For comparison, Scottish butchers nowadays fill Beef Olives with sausage meat, haggis or skirlie. 

How to wrap

After adding the stuffing, the meat is rolled into cigar-shaped parcels. 

I found two different instructions on how to do it:

1. The stuffing is patted into the shape of a wine cork, and the meat is wrapped around it. 
2. The stuffing is spread across the surface of the steak, and then the meat is rolled up. 

Stewing

Once the meat parcels are ready, some of the older recipes (15 - 17th century) suggest roasting the meat on a round spit. More recent cookbooks recommend stewing the meat slowly in gravy made from beef stock with or without additional ingredients like ketchup (more likely mushroom ketchup as tomato ketchup was still a new invention in 19 century), browning, bacon, butter, and flour to thicken it.

Our Vintage Beef Olives Recipe 

I merged a few 19th-century recipes, hoping my version would closely resemble how Victorians might have cooked Beef Olives. 

Ingredients

• 6 pcs thin-cut beef steaks (use off-cuts and chop them with the bacon to make the filling)
• 35 g suet
• 55 g breadcrumbs
• 2 streaks of bacon
• dry marjoram, oregano, and thyme (a teaspoon each)
• a pinch of nutmeg
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• 1 l strong beef stock

Suet

Suet is hard fat from cow, mutton or lamb. It has a sort of crumbly texture that stays solid at room temperature. It's not very popular any more, but it used to have a staple place in the kitchens, and it was essential fat used for many British puddings (sweet or savoury), dumplings, pastries and stuffing.

For this recipe, suet adds more moisture to the stuffing without making it extremely greasy.

Beef offcuts and bacon

You can decide to replace the homemade minced meat mix from offcuts, bacon and suet and buy sausage stuffing instead.

Breadcrumbs

It's more economical to make breadcrumbs at home. There is not much needed for this recipe.

Use 2 - 3 slices of soft white bread, divide each into nine small squares, and let them dry out for at least 2 hours.

To create breadcrumbs, blend the dry(ish) bread in a food processor or blender until it resembles fine sand.

If you prefer to buy breadcrumbs, I suggest you look for a polish brand. You get more for your money as these are generally cheaper and are sold in larger quantities.

Methods

Prepare the meat:

• Tenderise the thinly cut beef steaks; make them into similar sizes by cutting off the uneven edges and excess meat (you will need the off-cuts for the stuffing); season with salt and pepper.

Make the stuffing:

• Thoroughly chop the beef off-cuts and bacon, so it resembles minced meat.
• Combine chopped meat with breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, nutmeg, egg and a few tablespoons of beef stock, carefully adding the stock in small steps to achieve a paste-like consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the olives:

• Spread the stuffing over the beef, and roll the meat up; fasten it with string or a couple of wooden toothpicks.  

Cook the meat:

• Heat up around a tablespoon of lard or suet; fry the meat parcels to brown them; work in batches. 

• Set the browned meat aside and pour the stock carefully onto the hot oil; give it a good stir to release any bits stuck to the bottom during frying. 
• Place the meat parcels back; cover the pot with a lid and let it stew on the stovetop on medium-low heat or in the oven at 160 C for 2.5 hours.    

• Serve the beef olives with mashed potatoes or rice accompanied by pickled gherkins or silverskin onions (any pickled vegetable compliment the meal).

Video

Beef olives cooking time

Victorian recipes recommend slowly stewing beef olives in gravy for 2 - 2.5 hours, and it also proved to be sufficient timing for our modern hob/electric oven.

If you are going to use a slow cooker, cook the meat at a low setting for 6 - 7 hours or around 4 hours on a higher setting.

Slow cooking can be quite handy, even our ancestors liked this method. A recipe from Mrs Beeton's Dictionary of Every-day Cookery 1865 advised stewing the meat for 11 long hours. The extended cooking time was likely driven by practicality as people could leave the meal cooking while doing their daily chores. The whole family then returned home to a ready-to-serve dinner at the end of the day.

As a bonus, even though meat from older animals becomes tender after 11 hours.

Stovetop vs Oven

A common practice is to stew Beef Olives in liquid, preferably beef stock. It can be done either on the stovetop or in the oven.

I prefer cooking Beef Olives or any kind of stew in the oven in a casserole dish. The consistent oven temperature helps to heat up the pot more or less evenly from all sides; therefore, the food can cook at the same speed - no stirring required. You'll be rewarded with tender, juicy meat bathing in flavourful gravy.

On the hob, the heat is coming only from the bottom. There is a risk that a stew can catch at the base without occasional stirring, and meat and other ingredients might not be cooked evenly. On the other hand, it's faster to reduce any liquid on the hob than it is in the oven.

What to Serve with Beef Olives

Beef Olives can be a tad dry if served without gravy. Even the oldest recipes that tend to roast the meat serve it with jus or nice sauce. As a best practice, stew the meat in beef stock. It makes a great base for a hearty, flavourful gravy you can pour over the meat.

Mash potatoes are the number one side dish preferred by most cookbooks. Rice is a good choice also, as it will soak up all the sauce.

Pickled vegetables like gherkins, small silverskin onions, green chillies or beetroot pair exceptionally well with the beef and gravy and add a nice tangy crunch to the dish.

Fancy something more modern?

You are welcome to travel back in time and make our recipe the way Victorian chefs prepared it. Don't worry about the meal being too old-school. This 19th-century recipe makes a surprisingly tasty contemporary dish. 

However, if we didn't convince you, check the following sites for a Beef Olive Recipe with a more contemporary twist:

• Scottish Scran and their Beef Olives stuffed with sausage meat, haggis and sage 

• Great British Recipes and their version of Beef Olives with mushrooms and stilton filling.

If it's the preparation that bothers you, save some time by buying stuffed raw meat from some of your local shops or online butchers, more so if you are in Scotland (as it looks like Beef Olives are still quite popular up there).

Check if these online shops deliver to your area:

Simon Howie - The Scottish Butcher - silverside steak stuffed with sausagemeat, haggis or skirlie

Mc Caskie's Butcher - Scotch beef ham with beef, sage onion sausage meat stuffing

Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda used to sell Malcolm Allan's Beef Olives, but this product is currently out of stock in all three supermarkets (at least in Eastbourne, where I live). 

Recipe Card

Notes:

The custom of cooking stuffed larks (or any small bird) possibly led to an association with beef prepared similarly using a specific cut of meat - most often thin beef steak. For example, sirloin is called Aloyaux in France.

Words like Alows, Aloes, Aloyau and Alayaux are likely derived from the French word for Lark - Alouette (Latin Alauda).

Recipe examples:

• Alows de Beef
• Allowes of Mutton
• Alouette de boeuf

Definition from "The Free Dictionary" by Farlex: aloyau - [ alwajo] n.m. [ probabl. de l'anc. fr. aloel, alouette ] [aloyaux]. Morceau de bœuf correspondant à la région du rein et de la croupe et renfermant le filet, le contre-filet et le romsteck.

Resources:

Online sites:

• foodsofengland
• godecookery
• fr.thefreedictionary
• en.wiktionary

Online Books:

Two 15th Century Cookbooks, Anonymous around 1440 (Austin 1440); Transcriptions done in 1888 by Thomas Austin

The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin 1594, By Thomas Dawson, 1594

The Compleat Cook, Expertly Prescribing The Most Ready Wayes, Whether Italian, Spanish Or French, For Dressing Of Flesh And Fish, Ordering Of Sauces Or Making Of Pastry by WM, publisher Nath. Brook, at the Angel in Cornhill, 1658, as part of the W. M. volume 'The Queens Closet Opened

The Accomplisht Cook. The art & mystery of cookery by Robert May, publisher N Brooke, London, this 1685 version for Obadiah Blagrave

Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-day Cookery, edited by Isabella Beeton, 1865; recipes no. 650, 651, 

Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, Cassel, Petter & Galpin, 1883; pg. 57 (BEE)

The encyclopædia of practical cookery by Theodore Francis Garrett, 1891; pg. 101 

Pot-luck; or, The British home cookery book by May (Clarissa Gillington) Byron, 1914; Chapter 1, recipe no. 1

Good Things in England by Florence White (White 1932)