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Spiced Pressed Beef

A pressed beef dish seasoned with spices, simmered with vegetables, then glazed with gelatin and carmine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spiced Pressed Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove bones from the brisket and wash the meat.

  2. Spread the meat on a board and scatter the mixed spices and herbs over the inside.

  3. Roll up the meat and tie it in the middle and at each end with narrow white tape.

  4. Wrap the meat in a pudding cloth and tie it securely.

Simmer and press

  1. Place the meat in a large saucepan of warm water and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove the scum, then add the onions, carrot, and turnip.

  3. Cover the saucepan and let the meat simmer gently for 4 hours.

  4. After 4 hours, remove the beef and tighten the cloth.

  5. Place the meat between two flat dishes with weights on top and leave until the next day.

Glaze and finish

  1. Remove the cloth, wipe, and trim the meat.

  2. To glaze, dissolve the gelatine in boiling water, then add Parisian essence and carmine to achieve a rich reddish brown.

  3. Brush the meat with glaze, allowing each coat to set before applying more until thick and even.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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

Salt brisket of beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and sliceable after long gentle simmering.
8 sheets french gelatine
Dissolves into a glaze that sets into a firm, glossy coat on the outside of the meat.
Spices and herbs
Scented filling rolled inside the meat, flavouring it as it cooks.
Onions
Add savoury, sweet aromatic flavour to the simmering liquid around the meat.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 4 hours. A gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and intact; a hard boil toughens muscle fibres and can break the meat apart.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip. 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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