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Beef Ham

A cured beef ham prepared with brown sugar, salt, spices, and boiled after curing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Rub the beef with warmed brown sugar and let it sit for 2 days.

  2. Wipe the beef and rub it with the mixed salt and saltpetre.

  3. Leave it for 14 to 18 days, rubbing daily.

  4. If desired, smoke the beef or blend spices with the salt for flavor.

Cook

  1. For boiling, roll the beef tightly in a cloth and weigh it down.

  2. After 24 hours, boil in cold water slowly, keeping it in the cloth until cold.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 the cure penetrates and firms as it is salted and cooked.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long cure.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the meat's pink color and preserves it during curing.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt.

The step that matters

Boiling slowly in cold water. Starting in cold water and heating gently keeps the outer meat from toughening and drying before the centre cooks through. Keeping the beef tightly rolled in its cloth helps it hold a compact shape while it cooks and cools.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, pepper, clove, nutmeg. 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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