Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓
Potted Beef, As Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Hang the beef skirts in dry air for a week, or ten days in hard weather.
Beat the beef well with a rolling pin.
Remove the skin.
Cure the beef
Place the beef in a deep earthen pot without cutting.
Rub both sides with Jamaica pepper, eschalots, thyme, marjoram, sugar, and coarse sea salt.
Let the beef sit for six days, turning every day.
After six days, wipe the beef dry.
Cook and pot
Cut the beef into pieces.
Layer the beef in a deep straight-sided jar with small lumps of butter in between.
Place the jar in a water bath.
Heat until the meat is tender.
Increase the water temperature by adding salt to raise it by 8°F.
Once hot, pour off the gravy.
Let the meat cool in a dish.
The next day, remove the butter and fat from the gravy.
Cut the meat into dice.
Remove any films and strings.
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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Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
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Beef + marjoramtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together912 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Beef + thymetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,051 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Thyme + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,758 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef skirts
- Forms the main meat, which becomes tender and firm-textured when slowly heated.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve it during the cure.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, sealing the meat in the jar and keeping it moist.
- Coarse sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the salt and rounds out the savoury flavour.
- Eschalots
- Contribute a sharp, savoury aroma and flavour to the cured meat.
- Marjoram
- Adds a warm, aromatic herbal note that complements the beef.
The step that matters
Heating in the water bath until tender. Gentle, steady heat slowly breaks down connective tissue into gelatin while keeping the meat juicy. Too much heat toughens the muscle fibres and dries the meat out.
Swap the marjoram
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, thyme, sugar, butter):
- Marjoramthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Rosemaryfits about as well
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, thyme, sugar, butter. 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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