Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Beef Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Prepare, trim, and shape the leg of beef like a ham.
Place it on a dish and baste with the pickle morning and evening for a month.
Smoke and store
Remove from the pickle, drain, roll in bran, and smoke it.
Cover with a piece of canvas and give it a coat of lime-wash.
Hang in a dry place until needed.
If the meat shows signs of turning, boil it in scalding water for 7-8 minutes with pieces of charcoal.
Immediately plunge it into cold water after boiling.
Store in the coolest place available.
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 + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + beertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together414 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
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Pepper + beertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together940 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sugar + beertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together699 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and pepper 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 leg
- Forms the main joint that is cured, smoked and stored like a ham.
- Saltpetre
- Gives cured meat its pink colour and helps preserve it during curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping to preserve it during curing.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Treacle
- Adds dark colour, moisture and a rich molasses flavour to the cure.
The step that matters
Basting the pickle over a month. The salt and saltpetre must penetrate the thick joint evenly. Regular basting keeps the surface wet with brine so the cure reaches the centre and preserves the meat safely.
“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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