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Beef Salted, Ob Corned, Red

A method of preserving beef by salting, brining with saltpetre, baking soda, and molasses, then smoking or storing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef Salted, Ob Corned, Red

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. Cut the beef into pieces.

  2. In a pickle tub or barrel, layer some salt at the bottom.

  3. Add a layer of meat, sprinkle with salt, and repeat until all meat is used.

  4. Let it sit overnight.

  5. Dissolve baking soda and saltpetre in warm water, then mix with molasses or sugar.

  6. Pour this mixture over the meat and add enough water to cover it.

  7. Place a board on top to keep the meat submerged in brine.

Cure and preserve

  1. After ten days, the meat is ready to use.

  2. For longer preservation, boil the brine, skim it, cool it, and return it to the meat.

  3. To smoke, wipe the meat dry and hang it in a chimney or over a smoldering fire for ten days.

  4. Rub black pepper over the meat to deter flies and store in a dry, dark, cool place.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Is the meat being preserved, absorbing salt and cure over the curing period.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve it against spoilage.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep its colour and adds to the preserving effect of the cure.
Molasses or coarse brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.

The step that matters

Keeping the meat fully submerged in brine. Any meat left above the brine can spoil, since salt only preserves where it penetrates. The board keeps every piece under the liquid for the whole cure.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, molasses, clove, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, molasses, clove, allspice. 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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