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Dutch, or Hung Beef

A preserved beef cured with saltpetre, sugar, salt, pepper, and treacle, then smoked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dutch, or Hung Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Mix saltpetre and sugar; rub into all parts of the beef.

  2. Let the beef sit for 2 days.

  3. Add coarse sea salt, common salt, and black pepper; rub thoroughly into the beef.

  4. After 4 days, pour treacle over the beef; rub and turn daily for 2 weeks.

Finish

  1. Drain and send the beef to be smoked.

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

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

  2. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Is the meat being cured, so its texture firms and its moisture is drawn out by the salt.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured beef its characteristic pink colour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the beef and seasons it during the long cure.
Treacle
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the cure's surface.

The step that matters

Turning the beef daily during the treacle cure. Rubbing and turning spreads the salt, sugar and treacle evenly over the meat and keeps the surface from drying unevenly, so the cure penetrates consistently over the two weeks.

“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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