Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Beef, Dutch
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Rub the beef with brown sugar and let it sit for 5-6 hours, turning frequently.
Place the beef in an earthenware pan.
Mix saltpetre with coarse sea salt and press it into the beef, rubbing and turning daily for 14 days.
Press and dry
Put the beef in a coarse cloth under a cheese press for 24 hours.
Dry the beef in a chimney.
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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Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,435 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef buttock
- Forms the meat that becomes firm and sliceable once cured and dried.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the salty cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the beef keep its red colour during long curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
The step that matters
Daily rubbing during the 14-day cure. Salt and saltpetre must reach every part of the meat evenly. Turning and rubbing daily spreads the cure through the muscle and prevents spoilage at the surface, while the salt slowly draws out moisture.
“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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