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Dutch Beef

A smoked beef cured with sugar, salt, saltpeter, garlic, juniper, and vinegar, then boiled before slicing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,115 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Dutch Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

  1. Remove the skin from the beef and rub it all over with ½ pound of coarse sugar.

  2. Let it sit for three days, turning daily.

  3. Mix 1 pound of coarse sea salt, 1 pound of common salt, 1 ounce of saltpeter, 1 ounce of minced garlic, 1 ounce of crushed juniper berries, and 1 pint of vinegar.

  4. Rub this mixture into the meat well for five days, turning it in the pickle every three days for an additional two weeks.

Coat and smoke

  1. Bind broad tape around the meat as a collar and coat it thoroughly with pea flour.

  2. Smoke the meat for one month using oak logs, sawdust, and beech or birch chips.

  3. Store the smoked meat for at least two months before cooking.

Cook and serve

  1. When ready to cook, place the meat in boiling water and simmer gently.

  2. Allow it to cool before slicing.

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. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Beef + garlictop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Garlic + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 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

Prime beef
Provides the meat itself; moderate fat keeps the cured slices moist and tender.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long cure.
Saltpeter
Helps keep the cured meat's pink color and inhibits spoilage bacteria during curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and softens the sharpness of the cure.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the cure, adding tang and helping to preserve the meat.
Juniper berries
Contributes a resinous, aromatic flavor to the cured beef.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cure in and turning the meat. Salt and curing agents must penetrate evenly. Uneven rubbing or skipped turns leave parts under-cured and vulnerable to spoilage, so the meat is turned regularly throughout the long cure.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, vinegar, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, vinegar, 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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