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Brisket of Beef Baked

A brisket of beef baked with wine, lemon pickle, bacon, parsley, oysters, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 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 ↓

Brisket of Beef Baked

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brisket

  1. Bone a brisket of beef.

  2. Make holes in it with a sharp knife about an inch apart.

  3. Fill the holes alternately with fat bacon, parsley, and oysters, all chopped small and seasoned with pounded cloves, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  4. Dredge the brisket well with flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Lay it in a pan with a pint of red wine and a large spoonful of lemon pickle.

  2. Bake for three hours.

  3. Take the fat from the gravy and strain it.

  4. Serve garnished with green pickles.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

63Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
9 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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 Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef brisket (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow baking.
Red wine
Adds moisture and acidity to the pan, building the flavour of the gravy.
Fat bacon (in the method)
Melts during baking, adding richness and moisture to the meat around it.
Flour (in the method)
Coats the outside of the brisket, helping to thicken the gravy and brown the surface.
Oysters (in the method)
Stuffed into the holes, they add a savoury, briny flavour to the meat.

The step that matters

Bake for three hours. Brisket is a tough cut rich in connective tissue. Long, gentle baking in liquid slowly breaks that tissue down, making the meat tender. Baking too briefly or at too high a heat leaves it tough and dry.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Plumfits less well
  4. Orangefits less well

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