Skip to main content
Main

Beef

A method of curing beef with saltpetre, sugar, salt, pepper, and optional treacle and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil water slowly and press it under a heavy weight while hot.

  2. Trim the edges of the beef slice.

Cure the beef

  1. Rub ¾ lb of coarse sugar into the meat.

  2. Mix saltpetre, coarse sugar, coarse sea salt, common salt, and pepper.

  3. Apply the mixture to the beef.

  4. Let it cure for 4 days.

  5. If using, add treacle.

  6. Let it cure for an additional 14 days.

  7. Optionally, add cloves and mace in the same proportion as for spiced beef.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
The main meat that the cure penetrates and firms over the curing period.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic colour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and slows spoilage as it penetrates the meat.
Common salt
Adds further salting, drawing out moisture and preserving the meat.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt with mild sweetness and softens the saltiness.

The step that matters

Applying the cure and letting the full curing time pass. Salt and nitrate penetrate meat slowly, so the cure must be rubbed over every surface and given the full time. Rushing it leaves the centre under-cured and less well preserved.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, pepper, mace):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, pepper, mace. 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.

More salted beef recipes

Dutch 9Collar 5or Pork 4Ribs 4Roast 4English 3 See all 109 →

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes