Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Spiced Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Mix saltpetre and brown sugar thoroughly.
Rub the mixture well into a 25-pound round of beef.
Place the beef in a tub.
Let it sit for 48 hours, turning and rubbing it twice.
Spice and rest
Combine ground pepper, allspice, cloves, and fine salt; mix well.
Rub the spice mixture into the beef.
Turn and rub the beef daily for a week, preserving the pickle.
The beef will be ready for use in 3 to 4 weeks.
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.
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,938 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and clove 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
- Saltpetre
- Cures the meat and helps keep its colour and preserves it during the long rest.
- Fine salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the beef while the curing pickle forms.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Ground pepper
- Adds aroma and sharp heat to the crust of the spiced beef.
- Allspice
- Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the spice coating.
- Cloves
- Adds strong aromatic flavour to the spice coating.
The step that matters
Turning and rubbing the beef daily. Regular turning keeps the cure evenly distributed and the pickle in contact with all surfaces, so the salt and saltpetre penetrate the meat uniformly and it preserves safely.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, allspice):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Clovethe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, allspice. 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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