Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Keeping Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the brine
Cut the beef into pieces as large as desired.
Pack the beef into a barrel or cask.
Combine 1½ pounds coarse sea salt and 1 gallon water in a pot. Heat the mixture until boiling. Skim the brine. Add 1 ounce saltpetre and 1 tablespoon ground pepper.
Cure the beef
Pour the boiling brine over the beef. Cover tightly.
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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Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 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
- Is the main ingredient that the brine penetrates and preserves.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling brine over the beef. The brine must be fully boiled and skimmed before pouring so that it is clean and evenly salted. Pouring it over packed beef and covering tightly keeps the meat submerged and sealed while it cures.
“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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