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Corn Beep

A cured beef prepared by soaking in a brine of salt, sugar, molasses, and saltpetre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Corn Beep

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Salt the beef on a table for 24 hours.

  2. Place the beef in a tight barrel.

Make the brine

  1. Boil 9 gallons of water with ½ cup coarse sea salt, 3 cups brown sugar, 1 quart molasses, and 3 ounces saltpetre.

  2. Skim the top and let the mixture cool.

Cure

  1. Pour the cooled brine over the beef, ensuring it is fully submerged.

  2. Let it cure for 10 days.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + molassestop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat beef
The meat that is cured and becomes the finished corned beef.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic pink colour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the brine.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavour and extra sweetness to the brine.

The step that matters

Keeping the beef fully submerged in brine. Any meat left above the brine can spoil or cure unevenly, because the brine's salt and curing agents only penetrate and preserve the portions they fully cover.

“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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