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Spiced Beef

A chilled aspic made from boiled beef shank, finely chopped and spiced, then molded and sliced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 143 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Boil the shank of beef in just enough water to cover it.

  2. Cook until the meat falls from the bone.

Season and mold

  1. Chop the meat very fine and spice it with ground cloves, pepper, salt, and summer savory.

  2. Add enough of the cooking liquid to moisten the mixture well.

  3. Press the mixture into molds and let it cool.

Serve

  1. Once cold, slice and serve.

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. Clove + summer savorytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Beef + summer savorytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Provides the meat and natural gelatin that lets the mixture set into an aspic.
Cooking liquid (in the method)
Adds moisture and, once cooled, its gelatin helps bind the chopped meat firmly.
Ground cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the meat.
Summer savory
Adds a peppery, herbal aroma that complements the beef.

The step that matters

Add enough of the cooking liquid to moisten the mixture well.. Gelatin dissolved in the cooking liquid sets as it cools, binding the meat. Too little liquid leaves the mold dry and crumbly, while the right amount lets it hold together when sliced.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

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