Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Hunting Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cure the beef
Rub 3 ounces of saltpeter into the beef and let it stand for 5 to 6 hours.
Pound together 3 ounces of allspice and 1 ounce of black pepper.
Mix the spices with 2 pounds of salt and 7 ounces of brown sugar.
Rub the beef all over with the salt and spice mixture and let it sit for 14 days, turning and rubbing it with the pickle every other day.
Wash off the spices and place the beef in a deep pan.
Bake and store
Cut 6 pounds of beef suet into small pieces; place some at the bottom of the pan and the rest on top of the beef.
Cover the beef with a coarse paste and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 8 hours.
Once cooled, remove the crust and pour off the gravy.
Store the beef, which will keep for 3 months, and preserve the gravy to enhance the flavor of hashes, soups, or other dishes.
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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Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,940 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Allspice + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,938 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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 meat that is cured, then slowly baked until tender.
- Saltpetre
- Gives the cured meat its pink colour and helps preserve it during the long cure.
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the beef during the long dry cure.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the saltiness and helps the cure taste rounded.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that bastes the meat and keeps it moist during baking.
The step that matters
Turning and rubbing the beef during the 14-day cure. Salt and cure must reach every part of the meat evenly. Skipping the turning lets the brine pool unevenly, leaving some areas under-cured and others too salty or at risk of spoiling.
Swap the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Rosemaryfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, sugar. 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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