Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Corning Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Dry salt the beef
Rub each piece of beef thoroughly with coarse sea salt.
Place the beef, fleshy side down, in a box with holes in the bottom to drain blood.
Add a layer of coarse sea salt between each layer of beef and over the top.
After 10 days, wash the beef well and drain.
Brine and cure
Prepare brine by boiling 10 gallons of water, 10 pounds of coarse sea salt, ⅓ pound of saltpeter, 1½ pounds of sugar, and 1 pint of molasses.
Skim the brine.
Once the brine is cold, submerge the beef and weigh it down.
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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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Beef + molassestop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together606 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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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
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, firming the texture during curing.
- Saltpeter
- Helps the beef keep its pink colour during curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the cure.
- Molasses
- Adds depth of flavour and a darker colour to the brine.
The step that matters
Cold brine before submerging the beef. Adding beef to brine that is still warm can partly cook the surface and encourage spoilage. Letting the brine cool fully keeps the meat safe and the cure even.
“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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