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Dutch Beef, or Hung Beef

A preserved beef cured with sugar, salt, spices, then smoked and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dutch Beef, or Hung Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Hang the beef for 3‑4 days if weather permits.

  2. Rub the beef with sugar 2‑3 times a day for 3‑4 days.

  3. Wipe the beef dry and rub with the salt mixture.

  4. Continue rubbing for 2 weeks.

Smoke and serve

  1. Roll the beef tightly, sew it in coarse cloth, and smoke it.

  2. When needed, boil a piece and press it with a weight until cold.

  3. Shred or grate the beef for sandwiches.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the dish, and its lean muscle sets firm when cured and pressed.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt during the cure.
Common salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, slowing spoilage during curing.
Saltpetre
Helps cure the meat, preserving it and keeping a rosy colour in the cooked beef.
Black pepper
Adds sharp aroma and a spiced bite to the outer crust of the beef.

The step that matters

Rubbing the salt mixture in over the full curing period. Salt and saltpetre only penetrate the meat slowly by diffusion, so uneven or skipped rubbing leaves spots that spoil or cure unevenly. Repeated rubbing keeps the cure in contact with the surface so it can draw in and preserve the meat throughout.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, pepper. 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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