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Baked Beef

A large rump roast seasoned, larded, and baked for several hours, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Baked Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beef

  1. Rub the beef with black pepper, allspice, ground cloves, and mace.

  2. Hang the beef for 2 to 3 weeks, keeping it dry and renewing the seasoning occasionally.

  3. Wash off the spices with port wine.

  4. Lard the meat by inserting large pieces of lard in various parts.

  5. Place shredded suet under and over the meat.

  6. Cover the meat with a coarse flour-and-water paste.

  7. Optionally add bay leaves or sweet herbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle the joint with salt and flour.

  2. Baste the joint.

  3. Pass a salamander over the joint.

  4. Bake the beef in a moderately heated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 6 to 8 hours, depending on size.

  5. If serving hot, remove the dough, bay leaves, and suet.

  6. If serving cold, leave the dough on until ready to serve.

  7. Serve with strong gravy or brown sauce.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 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 + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rump of beef
Forms the main joint; long slow baking tenderises its connective tissue into moist meat.
Lard
Inserted into the meat to add fat, keeping the lean joint moist during long cooking.
Shredded suet
Placed under and over the meat to baste it with fat as it cooks.
Black pepper
Seasons the surface of the beef with sharp, aromatic heat.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the seasoned crust of the beef.
Coarse flour-and-water paste
Forms a protective dough crust that seals in moisture during the long bake.

The step that matters

Keeping the crust sealed during the long bake. The flour-and-water paste must fully enclose the joint so moisture and fat stay in the meat over many hours. A gap lets juices escape and the surface dry out, leaving the beef tough.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, allspice, clove, port wine, meat, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, allspice, clove, port wine, meat, flour. 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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