Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Curing Beef Cheeks for Canning
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the cheeks from the head immediately after the beef is killed, trimming off all fat.
Cut the cheeks lengthwise through the outside muscles twice.
Soak the cheeks in ice water with salt for 1-2 hours to draw out slime and blood.
Place the cheeks on a coarse wire screen or perforated pan in a cooler for 24 hours to chill.
For every 285 lbs. of cheeks, mix 3 lbs. of Freeze-Em-Pickle, 6 lbs. of granulated sugar, and 15 lbs. of coarse sea salt.
Mix half of this mixture with the chilled cheeks thoroughly and pack into tierces.
If sealing tierces, add the heads and dissolve the remaining mixture in 15 gallons of cold water, pouring it into the tierces.
If leaving tierces open, pour the brine over the cheeks and cover with boards to prevent floating.
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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Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
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