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A Beisket of Beef Baked

A baked beef brisket seasoned with wine, eggs, herbs, and spices, served hot with lemon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hodgson, Mary, fl. 1855 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Beisket of Beef Baked

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Take a brisket, say ten pounds.

  2. Make a dressing of ham, parsley, oysters, seasoned with pounded cloves, pepper, salt and nutmeg, and the yolk of two eggs well beaten.

  3. Make holes in the beef and stuff it.

Bake and serve

  1. Put it in a pan with a little water and half a pint of wine.

  2. Bake it three hours.

  3. Serve hot at table.

  4. Garnish with sliced lemons.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

129Calories
7 gProtein
6 gFat
6 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hodgson, Mary, fl. 1855. 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. See the original page.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Brisket (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and juicy during long, slow baking.
Eggs
Bind the dressing so the stuffing holds together when sliced.
Wine
Adds moisture and flavour to the pan liquid as the beef bakes.

The step that matters

Stuffing the holes in the beef. The dressing must be packed firmly into the holes so it stays in place during baking. Loose stuffing can fall out and leave dry, unevenly cooked pockets in the meat.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, egg, parsley, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, egg, parsley, pepper, nutmeg. 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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