Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Pickle Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Rub each piece of beef with salt and let it sit for 24 hours; then wipe it dry.
Pack the beef closely in a clean firkin.
Make and add the brine
Boil the soft water with coarse sea salt, saltpetre, and brown sugar for 15 minutes, then skim it clean.
Allow the brine to cool completely before pouring it over the beef.
Place a weight on top to keep the meat submerged in the brine.
Keep the firkin tightly covered.
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.
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Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,435 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- The main protein, which the salt and brine cure and preserve.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and inhibits spoilage during curing.
- Brown sugar
- Adds mild sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Soft water
- Forms the brine that carries the salt, saltpetre and sugar into the meat.
The step that matters
Let the brine cool completely before pouring it over the beef. Pouring hot brine onto raw meat would partly cook the surface and uneven the cure. A fully cooled brine penetrates evenly and keeps the meat raw until curing is done.
“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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