Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Scarlet Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Rub the beef with the coarse sea salt, brown sugar, and saltpetre, mixed and finely beaten together.
Let it sit for two weeks, turning it daily.
Cook and serve
After two weeks, boil the beef with greens.
Serve sliced cold, garnished with parsley.
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.
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Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,435 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Is the main meat that the cure penetrates and firms as it cooks.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and carries the cure into it, seasoning and preserving it.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the saltiness of the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Is a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it a pink colour and cured flavour.
The step that matters
Rub the cure in evenly and turn the beef daily. Salt, sugar and saltpetre must be finely mixed and spread over the whole surface so the cure penetrates evenly. Turning daily keeps the brine distributed, so no area is left under-cured while the meat is held for 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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