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To Collar Beef

A brisket cured with salt, saltpetre, spices, wrapped, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Collar 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. Cut off the end of the brisket and bone it.

  2. Sprinkle the meat with coarse sea salt and saltpetre, then let the meat sit for a week.

Season and roll

  1. Mix together nutmeg, Jamaica pepper, black pepper, lemon thyme, sweet marjoram, and parsley, then strew the spice mixture over the meat.

  2. Roll the meat up tightly and sew it in a cloth.

Bake and press

  1. Place the wrapped meat in a large jar of water and tie the jar tightly.

  2. Bake the jar in the oven at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Remove the jar from the oven and press the meat with a heavy weight.

  4. Once the meat is cold, remove the cloth and keep the meat dry.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Brisket of beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and sliceable when cooked slowly.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat deeply during the long resting period.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives it a characteristic pink colour.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that balances the richness of the beef.
Lemon thyme
Contributes a bright citrus aroma that complements the savoury meat.

The step that matters

Pressing the meat after baking. Pressing while the meat is still warm compacts the muscle fibres and gives a firm, even texture once it cools. Keeping the meat dry afterwards prevents moisture from softening the surface.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, lemon, thyme, marjoram, parsley):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, lemon, thyme, marjoram, parsley. 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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