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 ↓
Corned Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pickle
Combine brown sugar, saltpetre, coarse sea salt, mace, cloves, allspice, bay leaves, and vinegar with 4 quarts of water in a large pot.
Boil the mixture, skim off any foam, and pour off the liquid to cool.
Cure and cook
Soak the beef in the cooled pickle for 3 to 4 days before cooking.
Place the beef in warm water and bring it to a steady boil.
Reduce heat and let it simmer until fully cooked.
Use the broth
Use the cooking liquid for soup if it is not too salty and no vegetables were boiled with the meat.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,189 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,548 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 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
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and adds the characteristic cured flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the curing process.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the salt with sweetness and adds flavour to the cure.
- Vinegar
- Adds a small acidity that brightens the pickle's flavour.
The step that matters
Simmer gently after the boil. Once the beef reaches a steady boil, lowering the heat to a simmer keeps the meat tender. A hard boil toughens muscle fibres and can make the outside dry and stringy before the centre is cooked.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, allspice, vinegar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, allspice, vinegar. 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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