Why it works: Molasses and beef work together. They rank in the top 35% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 606 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Salt Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Make a strong pickle with rock salt and cold water that can float an egg, leaving some salt at the bottom of the tub.
For 1 cwt of beef, add 2 quarts of molasses and ¼ pound of saltpetre.
Let the beef cure for 10 days.
Cook and press
Boil the beef slowly until the bones come out easily.
Wrap the beef in a towel and place a heavy weight on it until it cools.
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.
-
Molasses + beeftop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together606 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- 1 cwt beef
- Is the meat that the cure penetrates and the boil makes tender.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a dark, rich flavour to the cured meat.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives it its characteristic pink colour during curing.
- Rock salt
- Preserves the meat and draws out moisture while seasoning it.
The step that matters
Boil the beef slowly. A hard, rapid boil toughens meat and can break it apart, while a gentle simmer lets the connective tissue soften so the meat becomes tender and the bones loosen.
“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.
More salt beef recipes
You might also like
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Corned Beef87 recipes
Beef Broth67 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.