Why it works: Sugar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Hamburgh Pickle Por Beef, Hams, and Tongue
Ingredients
Directions
Boil water, coarse sea salt, coarse sugar, saltpetre, and bruised black pepper in a large pot for 20 minutes.
Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.
Pour the pickle into a deep earthen pan and let it cool completely.
Submerge the meat in the cooled pickle, ensuring it is fully covered.
Turn the meat occasionally in the brine.
The beef will be ready to serve in two weeks.
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 + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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