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Corned Beef

A beef dish cooked in boiling water and served with a pickled cucumber and onion sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Corned Beef

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Corned Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Wash the beef well.

  2. Place the beef in a pot with plenty of boiling water.

  3. Cook for at least 18 minutes per pound.

  4. Reserve the cooking liquid for later use.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Dish the meat.

  2. Make a sauce by mixing chopped pickled cucumber and a small amount of chopped pickled onion.

  3. Serve the sauce in a boat alongside the beef.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Beef + cucumbertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together576 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat that is cooked in boiling water and served as the main dish.
Pickled cucumber
Adds sharp acidity that contrasts with the rich, savoury meat.
Pickled onion
Adds sharp acidity and a pungent bite to the accompanying sauce.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion. 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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