Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Collared Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cure
Remove the skin from the beef.
Rub the beef with saltpetre, salprunella, coarse sea salt, and brown sugar.
Let it cure for a week, basting daily.
Season and roll
Wipe the beef and rub it with plenty of spices.
Roll the beef tightly and fasten it in a cloth.
Boil and press
Boil for six hours.
Remove it from the water and place it under a press until cold.
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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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
- Flank of tender beef
- Forms the main body of the dish, which is firmed and sliced after pressing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink cured colour during the long cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the beef and seasons it deeply during curing.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Spices
- Add aroma and flavour to the outside of the rolled beef.
The step that matters
Basting the cure daily for a week. Salt and curing agents penetrate the meat slowly and unevenly. Regular basting keeps the cure in contact with the surface so the seasoning and colour develop evenly through the beef.
“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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