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 ↓
Hung Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Put the rib of beef into a strong brine of coarse sea salt, saltpetre, and spring water for nine days.
Hang it up in a chimney where wood or sawdust is burned.
When slightly dry, wash the outside with blood two or three times to make it look black.
When sufficiently dried, boil it for use.
Dry-cure method
For another method, take the navel-piece and hang it in a cellar until it begins to be sappy.
Cut it into three pieces and wash each piece in sugar and water.
Mix 1 pound of saltpetre, 2 pounds of dried coarse sea salt, and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. Rub this mixture well into the beef.
Strew common salt all over and let the beef sit until the salt dissolves, turning it every other day for a fortnight.
After two weeks, hang it up in a warm place for another fortnight.
Boil and keep
When ready to use, boil it in bay salt and pump water until tender.
It will keep for two to three months when boiled, if rubbed with a greasy cloth or briefly boiled to remove mold.
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
- Rib of beef
- Is the meat being cured, so it becomes firm, preserved and ready to boil.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its colour and adds to the preserving effect of the cure.
- Brown sugar
- Adds a little sweetness and softens the harshness of the salt cure.
The step that matters
Hanging in the warm place after the salt cure. Salt and saltpetre must have fully penetrated and the surface must dry evenly. Uneven drying can let mould grow or leave the centre under-cured, which is why the record also notes mould removal before keeping.
“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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