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Dutch Beef

A large beef joint cured with salt, sugar, and spices, then boiled, baked, and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dutch Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cure the beef

  1. Pound the salts, sugar, and spices, then mix them together.

  2. Rub the beef well with the mixture.

  3. Let the beef stand for 2-3 weeks, turning it daily and rubbing it with the mixture.

  4. Bind the beef tightly and skewer it.

Cook and bake

  1. Place the beef in a pot and cover it with cold water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. Remove the beef from the pot and place it in a baking pan.

  4. Pour melted dripping over the joint and cover the top with a paste made of flour and cold water.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 4-5 hours.

  6. Remove the paste when done, but do not cut the joint until it is cold.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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
Forms the main joint, which becomes tender and sliceable after long, slow cooking.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, giving it a pink colour and a distinctive cured flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long curing period.

The step that matters

Do not cut the joint until it is cold. Meat fibres relax and release juices as they cool and set, so cutting while hot lets juices run out and leaves the slices dry and crumbly.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, allspice. 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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