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Collared Beef

A cured and simmered beef prepared by salting, pickling, rolling, and slow cooking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Collared Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Rub the thin flank thoroughly with coarse sea salt and a little saltpetre.

  2. Let it drain overnight.

  3. Wash the beef.

  4. Cut out the gristle.

  5. Remove the outer and inner skin.

  6. Finely pound a little clove.

  7. Mix it with salt, black pepper, and sugar.

  8. Rub this mixture into the beef.

  9. Let the beef remain in the pickle for a week.

  10. Turn and baste it every day.

Roll and cook

  1. Take it out of the pickle.

  2. Roll it up tightly.

  3. Bandage it with strong cloth strips.

  4. Tie with tape.

  5. Place the rolled beef into cold water.

  6. Simmer for five to six hours.

Press and serve

  1. Place it between boards.

  2. Press with heavy weights until completely cold.

  3. Slice and serve cold.

  4. Trim the ends before serving whole.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

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

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Thin flank beef
Forms the main meat that is cured, rolled, and cooked into a sliceable joint.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the curing process.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the cured colour and flavour of the meat during the long pickle.
Sugar
Balances the saltiness and softens the savour of the cured beef.

The step that matters

Pressing until completely cold. Pressing while the beef cools firmly binds the rolled layers and gives a compact, sliceable texture. Releasing pressure too early can leave the joint loose and crumbly.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, sugar. 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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