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Pressed Beef

Cured brisket that is simmered and pressed, then served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,866 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pressed Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Cut off the bones from the brisket.

  2. Salt the brisket, adding a little sal prunella and spices to the brine.

  3. Let the beef pickle for about a week.

Cook and press

  1. When ready to cook, roll the beef and tie it in a cloth.

  2. Simmer gently in plenty of water for about 7 hours if whole, or 4 hours if only the thin end.

  3. Once done, remove the string. Tie the cloth at both ends.

  4. Place the cloth on a dish with another dish on top, weighing it down with something heavy until completely cold.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat from the cloth.

  2. Trim the meat.

  3. Glaze it lightly.

  4. Serve garnished with fresh parsley.

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 + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Brisket of beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and sliceable after long gentle simmering.
Coarse sea salt
Cures the meat by drawing out moisture and seasoning it during the week of pickling.
Sal prunella
Curing salt that helps the meat keep a pink colour and adds a cured flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering gently. Boiling vigorously toughens the muscle fibres and can break the meat apart, so it should only barely simmer for the full time.

“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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