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Irish Beef

A beef roast pickled with spices, baked for several days, then finished with melted suet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Irish Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Rub the beef with black pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Let it pickle for 14 days, turning it frequently.

Stuff and coat

  1. Stuff the beef with herbs.

  2. Cover it with a thick paste.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for three days or more, depending on size.

  2. Remove the paste.

  3. Pour melted beef suet over the beef.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during long, slow cooking.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat during curing and gives it a rosy colour.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that penetrates the meat during pickling.
Beef suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the beef moist and flavourful.

The step that matters

Baking at low heat for days. Long, low heat slowly breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender. Because cooking time depends on size, the beef must be given enough time to cook through fully under its thick paste.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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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