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Collared Beef

Collared beef is a preserved beef made by salting, pickling, and boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef 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 ↓

Collared Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Mix saltpetre, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and common salt.

  2. Rub the mixture onto the beef and let it sit for four days.

  3. Add treacle to the beef.

  4. Turn the beef daily in the pickle for a week or more.

Prepare and cook

  1. Dip the beef in water.

  2. Bone the beef.

  3. Skin the inside of the beef.

  4. Roll and bind the beef tightly.

  5. Place the beef in cold water.

  6. Boil the beef for three and a half hours.

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

Thin flank beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender with long, slow cooking.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the beef during the cure.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the beef during the cure.
Treacle
Adds sweetness and flavour to the cured beef.

The step that matters

Turn the beef daily in the pickle for a week or more. The cure must reach evenly through the thick meat. Regular turning keeps the brine in contact with all surfaces, so salt penetrates evenly and the beef cures safely throughout.

“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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