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Beef, Collared

A preserved beef prepared by pickling, seasoning, and slow boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 331 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef, Collared

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Choose fine tender beef, but not too fat.

  2. Lay it in a dish and rub in the sugar, salt, and saltpetre.

  3. Let it remain in the pickle for 7 to 10 days, turning and rubbing it every day.

Prepare and roll

  1. Bone the beef, removing all gristle and coarse skin.

  2. Sprinkle it thickly with parsley, herbs, and seasoning.

  3. Roll the meat up tightly in a cloth and bind it firmly with broad tape.

Cook and press

  1. Boil it gently for 6 hours.

  2. After boiling, place it under a weight without unwrapping it and let it cool.

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. Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef flank
Forms the main body of the collar, and its fine, tender texture is what the dish relies on.
Coarse sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
Salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the curing period.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma to the seasoning spread over the meat.
Sage
Contributes a savoury, aromatic flavour to the seasoning.

The step that matters

Rolling and binding the beef tightly. Tight rolling and firm binding hold the meat in a compact shape while it boils, so the collar keeps an even form and slices cleanly once cooled under weight.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Sagethe original

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