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To Collar Beef

A preserved beef collar cured with salt, spices, and herbs, then boiled and sliced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Collar Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Remove the skin from the beef and salt it with saltpetre, sal-prunella, coarse sea salt, coarse sugar, and white salt.

  2. Mix the salts finely and combine all ingredients.

  3. Turn and rub the beef with the brine daily for eight days.

Prepare and season

  1. Remove the beef from the brine, wash the beef, and wipe the beef dry.

  2. Sprinkle the ground spices and chopped herbs over the beef.

  3. Roll the beef tightly, wrap the beef in coarse cloth, and tie the cloth securely with string.

Boil and press

  1. Boil the beef in a large pot of water for six hours (large collar) or five hours (small collar).

  2. Place the boiled beef in a press until cold.

  3. If no press is available, place the beef between two boards with a heavy weight on top.

Serve

  1. Remove the beef from the cloth, slice the beef, and garnish with raw parsley.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Flank of beef
Forms the main body of the collar, which firms and holds together as it cures and cooks.
Saltpetre
Helps the beef keep its red colour during curing.
White salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long cure.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, warm flavour to the outside of the rolled beef.

The step that matters

Boil the beef for the stated time. Boiling the rolled beef long enough cooks it fully and makes it tender. Too short leaves it undercooked, while the cloth and press help it hold a compact shape as it cools.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, clove, corn, allspice, 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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