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Cold Brisket of Beef, Stewed

A cold, stewed brisket of beef served with clarified stock and aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,021 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cold Brisket of Beef, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Rub the brisket with a little coarse sea salt and sugar.

  2. Place the brisket in a braising pan and cover it with stock.

  3. Add the carrots, onions, and pounded allspice to the pan.

  4. Stew gently until the beef is tender.

  5. Remove the beef and discard the bones.

Press and clarify

  1. Place the beef between two dishes with a weight on top to cool.

  2. Strain the stock to remove vegetables and grease.

  3. Clarify the stock.

  4. Add the juice of three lemons to the clarified stock.

Glaze and serve

  1. Once trimmed, coat the beef with jelly.

  2. Cut the remainder into squares for garnish.

  3. Add aspic jelly daily until consumed.

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. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

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

  2. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brisket of beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and firm-textured after slow stewing and cooling.
Stock
Carries flavour and, once clarified and set, forms the jelly that coats the beef.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the clarified stock.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savoury depth to the stewing liquid.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Clarify the stock. Clarifying removes cloudy particles and fat so the stock sets into a clear, firm jelly. Skipping or rushing this leaves the aspic cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, carrot, allspice, lemon):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, carrot, allspice, lemon. 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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