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Corn Beef

Salted beef simmered with spices and then sliced thinly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Corn Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Cover the beef with cold water and bring to a boil.

  2. Simmer until tender enough to shred with a fork.

  3. Allow the water to nearly evaporate.

  4. Let the beef cool in the remaining water.

Press and slice

  1. Pack the beef into a brick loaf pan, ensuring the fibers run lengthwise. Mix in the fat for marbling.

  2. Place a smaller board on top and weigh it down.

  3. Once cold, slice thinly.

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 + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Provides the main meat structure, which becomes tender and shreddable through long simmering.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture, and gives the packed beef a marbled appearance.
Onion juice
Adds savory aroma and a mild onion flavor to the meat.

The step that matters

Let the beef cool in the remaining water. Cooling slowly in the cooking liquid helps the meat stay moist and keeps the fibers from tightening. Pressing it while still warm would squeeze out juices and can leave the slices dry and crumbly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, celery):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, celery. 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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