Why it works: Beef and molasses work together. They rank in the top 35% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 606 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Brine for Curing Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Combine the salt, saltpetre, and molasses in a pot.
Add enough water to cover the mixture and bring to a boil.
Skim off any impurities that rise to the surface.
Allow the brine to cool completely.
Brine the beef
Pour the cooled brine over the beef.
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.
-
Beef + molassestop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together606 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out and seasons the meat, while helping it absorb the brine.
- Saltpetre
- Helps give cured meat its pink color and characteristic cured flavor.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a deeper, rounded flavor to the cured meat.
The step that matters
Let the brine cool completely before pouring it over the beef. Hot brine can partly cook the meat's surface and warm it into the temperature range where bacteria grow quickly. Cooling it first keeps the meat raw and safe during the cure.
“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.
More beef brine recipes
You might also like
Beef Tea69 recipes
Raw Beef Tea23 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.