Why it works: Clove and allspice 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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cure
Mix saltpetre, brown sugar, cloves, allspice, salt, and cayenne pepper in a bowl.
Rub the spice mixture thoroughly into the beef.
Place the beef on a platter and turn it daily for three weeks.
After three weeks, wash the beef thoroughly.
Roast
Make a batter with flour and water.
Spread the batter over the top of the beef before roasting.
Roast the beef in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 4 to 5 hours.
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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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,302 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Saltpetre
- Helps cure the beef and keeps its meat colour pink during the long cure.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the salty, spiced cure.
- Salt
- Draws moisture out of the beef and seasons it through during the cure.
- Flour
- Forms a batter crust over the beef that helps hold in moisture while it roasts.
The step that matters
Turning the beef daily during the three-week cure. The cure must reach every part of the meat evenly. Turning the beef daily keeps the spice mixture in contact with all surfaces, so the salt and curing salts penetrate uniformly and no area is left under-cured.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, allspice, pepper, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, allspice, pepper, flour. 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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