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Pressed Beef

A cured beef prepared by brining, simmering, and pressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,866 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pressed Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the bones from the brisket of beef.

  2. Prepare a brine with coarse sea salt, extra salt prunella, and spices.

  3. Salt the beef and let it pickle for about a week.

Cook and press

  1. Roll the beef and tie it in a cloth.

  2. Simmer gently in plenty of water for about 7 hours if whole, or 4 hours for the thin end.

  3. Remove the beef from the water.

  4. Take off the string and tie the cloth at both ends.

  5. Place the beef on a dish with another dish on top.

  6. Weigh it down with 50 pounds.

  7. Let it cool completely.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cold, remove the cloth.

  2. Trim the beef.

  3. Glaze it lightly.

  4. Serve garnished with fresh parsley.

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. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Brisket of beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes firm and sliceable after pressing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long pickling.
Extra salt prunella
Adds further salting during the cure, helping preserve and season the beef.

The step that matters

Weigh it down while cooling. Pressing the beef under weight as it cools compacts the meat and helps it hold together when sliced. Cooling it completely under pressure sets its shape.

“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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