Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Spiced Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Mix sal prunella, saltpetre, pounded spices, garlic, and moist sugar into the beef.
Rub the mixture well into the beef and let it pickle for a week, turning and rubbing daily.
Cook and press
Tie up the beef and place it in cold water.
Boil slowly, skim well, and simmer for 2-3 hours.
Place under heavy weights and serve cold.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,331 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Forms the main body of the dish, and its fat keeps the cooked meat moist.
- Saltpetre
- Fixes the meat's pink colour during the pickling period and adds a cured flavour.
- Sal prunella
- Acts as a curing salt that helps preserve the meat and seasons it during the week of pickling.
- Garlic
- Adds sharp aroma and savoury depth to the cured meat.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the salt and cure.
The step that matters
Rub the cure in and turn the beef daily. The cure must reach every part of the meat through regular rubbing and turning over the week. Uneven coverage lets some areas spoil or cure unevenly, while the salt and nitrate-based curing agents slowly penetrate the meat.
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mace, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, sugar):
- Cardamomfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Winter savoryfits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mace, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, sugar. 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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