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Collared Beef

A cured beef prepared by salting, pickling, rolling, and simmering, then chilled and sliced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Collared Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Rub the thin flank beef thoroughly with coarse sea salt and a little saltpetre, then let it drain overnight.

  2. Wash the beef, cut out the gristle, and remove the outer and inner skin.

  3. Pound a little clove very fine, then mix it with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and a little sugar.

  4. Rub the mixture thoroughly into the beef and let it remain in the pickle for a week, turning and basting it every day.

  5. After a week, take the beef out of the pickle and roll it up as tightly as possible.

Cook and press

  1. Bandage the rolled beef with strips of strong cloth and tie them with tape.

  2. Put the beef into cold water and let it simmer for five to six hours.

  3. Once done, place the beef between boards and press it with heavy weights until perfectly cold.

  4. Slice the beef cold, trimming the ends before serving whole.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Thin flank beef
Provides the meat that is rolled, cooked and sliced into the finished collar.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the meat pink and cured during the long pickling period.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the beef during curing.
Sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
Clove
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the cured meat.

The step that matters

Pressing until perfectly cold. The rolled beef must be pressed under weight as it cools so it sets into a firm, compact roll that slices cleanly. Slicing before it is fully cold makes the meat crumble.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, 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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