Name: Stuffed Corn Beef
Ingredients: 9 to 10 pounds well-corned rump or round beef; 1 handful soaked bread, squeezed dry; 2 tablespoons fat or butter; 1 pinch ground cloves; 1 pinch ground allspice; 1 pinch black pepper; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon marjoram or thyme; Vinegar for soaking

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 ↓

Stuffed Corn Beef

Ingredients

9 to 10 pounds well-corned rump or round beef
1 handful soaked bread, squeezed dry
2 tablespoons fat or butter
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground allspice
1 pinch black pepper
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon marjoram or thyme
Vinegar for soaking

Directions

Prepare

Make several deep cuts in the beef.
Fill the cuts with the stuffing made from soaked bread, fat or butter, cloves, allspice, pepper, onion, and marjoram or thyme.
Tie the beef tightly in a cloth and saturate it with vinegar.

Cook

Boil the beef for about three hours.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,075 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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

Well-corned rump or round beef: Long cooking softens the tough connective tissue, making the meat tender.
Soaked bread: Holds moisture and gives the stuffing a soft, binding texture.
Fat or butter: Coats the stuffing, adding moisture and richness.
Onion: Adds savoury flavour and aroma to the stuffing.
Marjoram or thyme: Adds herbal aroma that complements the beef.

The step that matters

Tie the beef tightly in a cloth. Tying firmly keeps the stuffing packed inside the cuts during the long boil, so it does not escape into the cooking liquid and the beef holds its shape while it cooks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, butter, clove, allspice, pepper, marjoram):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, butter, clove, allspice, pepper, marjoram. 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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Stuffed Corn Beef