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Brisket of Beef Stuffed

A boiled beef brisket stuffed with a breadcrumb and herb mixture, then wrapped in flour-dusted cloth, sliced thin and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Brisket of Beef Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, pepper, coarse sea salt, sweet herbs, mace, chopped onion, and egg to make the dressing.

Stuff and wrap

  1. Stuff the dressing between the fat and lean parts of the beef and sew it up tightly.

  2. Dust a cloth with flour and wrap the beef tightly in it.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil the beef brisket for 5 to 6 hours.

  2. Boil the wrapped beef for 5 to 6 hours.

  3. Once done, remove the cloth and press the beef until it cools.

  4. Slice thinly and serve cold.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef brisket
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow cooking in liquid.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind with the egg to give the stuffing body.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together so it holds its shape when sliced.
Onion
Adds savory flavor and moisture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Wrapping and sewing the stuffing in the beef. If the beef is not sewn and wrapped tightly, the stuffing can leak out or loosen during the long boil. Pressing the beef as it cools helps the layers set together so the slices hold their shape.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, pepper, onion, egg, flour. 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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