Why it works: Molasses and beef 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 ↓
Corn Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Make enough brine to cover the beef, strong enough to float an egg.
Boil the brine and skim it well.
Add 1 tablespoon of saltpetre and 1 quart of molasses after removing from heat.
Stir the mixture thoroughly until well combined.
Allow the brine to cool completely before adding 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.
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Molasses + beeftop 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
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