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 ↓
Beef Picexe
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Mix the coarse salt, sugar, and saltpetre together well.
Rub the mixture all over the beef.
Pack the beef pieces closely in a barrel without adding water.
Tend the cure
If a scum rises in warm weather, skim it off and add a little fine salt.
Turn the beef and rub the mixture in often until it is juicy.
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
- Coarse salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and dissolves into it, slowing spoilage and firming the texture.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the finished meat.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured beef its characteristic pink colour.
The step that matters
Turn the beef and rub the mixture in often. Salt and sugar only penetrate the meat as they dissolve into its moisture, so the pieces must be turned and rubbed repeatedly for the cure to spread evenly.
“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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