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
Prepare the beef
Mix the chopped suet with black pepper until almost black.
Add whole allspice and whole cloves to the mixture.
Punch holes through the beef and stuff with the suet mixture.
Sew the beef tightly in a bag.
Cure
Prepare a brine with water, sugar, saltpetre, and coarse sea salt.
Cover the beef well with the brine and let it sit for three weeks.
Cook and serve
After three weeks, boil the beef well.
When cold, remove the bag and slice from the cut end.
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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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,462 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Round beef
- Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender and sliceable after curing and boiling.
- Suet
- Adds fat and moisture inside the beef, keeping the stuffed meat juicy and flavourful.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long brine, helping preserve it.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it a reddish colour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the salt and rounds out the brine flavour.
- Whole allspice
- Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the suet filling.
The step that matters
Covering the beef fully with brine. The brine must cover all the meat so salt and saltpetre penetrate evenly. Any exposed part can spoil or cure unevenly over the three weeks.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, allspice, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Marjoramfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, allspice, 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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