Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Salt Beef Red
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose a piece of beef with as little bone as possible.
Sprinkle the beef and let it drain for one day.
Cure
Rub the beef with coarse sea salt, a small amount of saltpetre, and cochineal powder.
Rub the pickle into the meat daily for a week, then turn it over.
After eight days, it will be ready; drain it from the pickle after sixteen days.
Smoke and serve
Smoke the beef at the mouth of the oven or send it to the bakers for a few days.
To serve, boil the beef until tender with greens or carrots.
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 + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,435 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Is the main cut that is cured, smoked and then boiled until tender.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and keeps its colour during curing.
The step that matters
Draining from the pickle after sixteen days. Leaving the beef in the pickle too long can make it overly salty, while draining too early leaves the cure incomplete. Timing the drain at the stated point controls both salt level and preservation.
“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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