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Cure and Spice Corned Beef

A large quantity of beef cured in a salt, sugar, and saltpeter brine, then spiced with allspice, coriander, pepper, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Cure and Spice Corned Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Combine 4 gallons of water, 8 lbs. of coarse sea salt, 3 to 4 ounces of refined pulverized saltpeter, and 2.5 lbs. of brown sugar in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture, then cool to about 38°F (3°C).

Cure the beef

  1. Submerge 100 lbs. of beef in the brine and cure for about three weeks.

  2. If keeping longer, repack the beef and add 2 lbs. of coarse sea salt per 100 lbs.

Spice and finish

  1. When ready to spice, boil the beef until nearly done.

  2. In a cloth bag, combine 2 oz. each of whole allspice, coriander, and black pepper, and 1 oz. of whole cloves.

  3. Add the bag to the pot and boil with the meat for half an hour.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + coriandertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Coriander + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Is the meat that is cured and then becomes tender when boiled.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the cure.
Refined saltpeter
Preserves the meat and gives corned beef its characteristic pink color.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the salt in the brine.

The step that matters

Keeping the brine cold before curing. Cooling the brine to about 38°F (3°C) before adding the beef keeps the meat out of the warm range where bacteria multiply quickly, making the cure safer and more predictable.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, allspice, pepper, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, allspice, pepper, clove. 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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