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 ↓
To Salt Beef Red
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Choose a piece of beef with as little bone as possible.
Sprinkle the beef and let it drain for one day.
Cure the meat
Rub the beef with coarse sea salt, a small amount of saltpetre, bay salt, and cochineal powder.
Rub the pickle into the meat daily for a week, then turn it over.
After eight days, drain the meat from the pickle.
Smoke and serve
Smoke the meat at the mouth of the oven with wood for a few days.
For serving, boil the beef until tender with greens or carrots.
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
- Provides the meat that is cured, smoked and then boiled until tender.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives it its characteristic colour during curing.
- Bay salt
- Adds coarse salinity to the cure, supporting preservation and seasoning of the meat.
The step that matters
Draining and rubbing the pickle daily. Salt draws moisture out of the meat and dissolves into it, so the cure must be reapplied and turned regularly for even penetration. Uneven curing can leave parts under-salted and spoil-prone.
“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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