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Collared Beef

A beef cured with saltpetre, coarse salt, sugar, and herbs, then boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,866 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Collared Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Hang the beef in a damp place for 1-2 days to soften the outer skin.

  2. Rub the beef with coarse sugar and let it sit for 2 days.

  3. Mix saltpetre and coarse sea salt, then add to the beef.

  4. Let the beef cure for 10 days.

  5. Remove bones and tough inner skin from the beef.

Roll and cook

  1. Sprinkle the underside of the beef with chopped parsley and herbs.

  2. Roll the beef tightly and secure it with a cloth and broad tape.

  3. Boil the beef gently for about 5 hours.

  4. While hot, place the beef under a weight or in a press without removing the tape and cloth.

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. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + parsleytop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Flank or rib beef
Forms the meat that is cured, rolled and cooked into a firm, sliceable joint.
Saltpetre
Helps the cured meat keep its pink colour and resist spoilage during the long cure.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the beef while it cures.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
Parsley and other savory herbs
Add fresh, aromatic flavour to the inside of the rolled beef.

The step that matters

Boil the beef gently for about 5 hours. A gentle simmer cooks the rolled meat evenly and keeps it tender. A hard boil toughens muscle fibres and can break the roll apart, so the heat should stay low and steady.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar. 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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