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Melton-hunt Beef

A 30‑pound prime ox beef cured with juniper, spices, salt, and smoked over wood chips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Melton-hunt Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Choose a round of prime ox beef, about 30 pounds, with the bone removed.

  2. Examine the flap. Remove kernels and skins.

  3. Hang the beef in a dry place.

Cure

  1. Mix juniper berries, shallots, allspice, black pepper, bay leaves, coarse sugar, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Rub the mixture into all parts of the beef, especially the flap and the bone void.

  3. Rub daily for a week, turning the beef every other day.

  4. After a week, add rock salt or common salt and saltpetre, and minced garlic.

  5. Rub the mixture well every day for ten days.

  6. Turn the beef daily for another ten days.

Finish and smoke

  1. Shape the beef properly, skewer, and bind it firmly.

  2. Wipe the beef dry.

  3. Coat it with dry bran or pollard.

  4. Smoke it for a week.

  5. Alternatively, bake the beef.

  6. Let it cool for at least 48 hours before cutting.

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. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Shallot + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together386 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Prime ox beef
Provides the main meat that the cure penetrates and firms as it is held and dried.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve the beef during curing.
Rock salt or common salt
Adds further salt to the cure, drawing out moisture and seasoning the meat deeply.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives it a firm, rosy colour during the long cure.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt with sweetness and softens the harsh edge of the cure.
Juniper berries
Adds a resinous, aromatic flavour that perfumes the meat during curing.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cure in daily for the full period. Salt and saltpetre must reach the thickest parts, such as the flap and bone void, evenly. Skipping days or turning poorly leaves uncured spots where the meat can spoil.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, shallot, pepper, sugar, garlic, grass):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, shallot, pepper, sugar, garlic, grass. 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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