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Huntees' Beef

A preserved beef dish cured with saltpetre, sea salt, spices, and suet, then baked for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Huntees' Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beef

  1. Bone the beef.

  2. Bind the beef tightly.

  3. Rub saltpetre into the beef.

  4. Let the beef stand for 1 day.

Cure the beef

  1. Season the beef with coarse sea salt, black pepper, brown sugar, allspice, and cayenne.

  2. Let the beef pickle for 2 weeks.

  3. Turn the beef daily.

  4. Add a little salt three times a week.

  5. Wash off the salt and spices.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the beef in a deep granite or tin dishpan.

  2. Layer beef suet at the bottom of the dishpan.

  3. Layer beef suet on top of the beef.

  4. Add 1 pint of water to the dishpan.

  5. Cover the beef with a thick crust.

  6. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 7 to 8 hours.

  7. Pour off the gravy when done.

  8. Do not cut the beef until it is 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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 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).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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

Saltpetre
Cures the meat, giving it a pink colour and a firm, preserved texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the beef during the long pickling period.
Brown sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness and depth to the cured crust.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the beef moist during the long slow bake.

The step that matters

Do not cut the beef until it is cold.. Meat fibres relax and juices settle as it cools, so cutting it hot lets juices run out and leaves the slices dry and crumbly.

Swap the allspice

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. Allspicethe 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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