Name: To Salt Beef
Ingredients: 20 pounds beef; ½ cup coarse sea salt; ¼ pound very coarse sugar; 1 ounce saltpetre

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 ↓

To Salt Beef

Ingredients

20 pounds beef
½ cup coarse sea salt
¼ pound very coarse sugar
1 ounce saltpetre

Directions

Prepare

Sprinkle the beef with salt and let it sit for 24 hours.
Hang the beef up to drain.

Cure

Mix saltpetre, sugar, and common salt, then rub it into the beef.
Rub and turn the beef every day.
It will be ready in 10 days but can be kept longer.

Cook and serve

When cooking, boil the beef very slowly.
After cooking, let it stand in the pot by the fire for 30 minutes.

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.

Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Beef: The main protein, which the salt cure firms and seasons throughout.
Coarse sea salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, slowing spoilage during curing.
Saltpetre: Helps the cured meat keep a pink colour and adds to its preserving action.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the salt and softens the overall flavour of the cure.