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 ↓
Knickerbocker Dried Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Trim the beef and rub it all over with brown sugar once a day for three weeks.
After three weeks, rub the beef well with coarse sea salt and powdered saltpetre.
Use 1½ teaspoons of saltpetre for every 4 pounds of sugar and double that amount of salt.
Turn the beef every day for two weeks and keep it in a cool place.
Smoke and dry
After two weeks, roll the beef tightly in a coarse cloth and hang it in wood smoke for ten days.
Turn the beef bottom up every day while hanging.
Serve
It will then be ready to shave and use as smoked beef, or boil and slice when cold, or cook it like frizzled ham.
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
- Round of beef
- Forms the meat that is cured, dried and smoked into the final product.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the salt in the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping preserve it.
- Powdered saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it its colour.
The step that matters
Turning the beef every day during the two-week cure. The salt and sugar draw liquid out of the meat and dissolve into it. Turning the piece daily spreads the cure evenly over all surfaces, so no area is left under-salted and vulnerable to spoilage.
“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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