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Boiled Corned Beef

A boiled corned beef served with buttered lemon sauce and pickles or capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Boiled Corned Beef

Why it works: Lemon and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,222 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Boiled Corned Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Soak the corned beef in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Place the beef in a pot with plenty of cold water, the carrot, onion, and vinegar.

  3. Cook slowly for 25 minutes per pound if the meat is very salty.

  4. After cooking, let the beef sit in the liquid for 30 minutes.

  5. Trim the edges of the beef.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

  2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter rolled in flour.

  3. Boil the sauce for 2 minutes.

  4. Add minced pickles or capers to the sauce.

Serve

  1. Place the beef on a hot dish.

  2. Brush the beef with melted butter mixed with lemon juice.

  3. Serve with horseradish and mustard.

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.

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.

  1. Lemon + caperstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Corned beef
Is the main component, cooked slowly until tender in seasoned water.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish when brushed over the hot beef.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce when mixed with butter.
Pickles or capers
Add acidity and a sharp, briny flavor to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the buttery brushing mixture.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 25 minutes per pound if the meat is very salty. Gentle, slow simmering keeps the meat tender and prevents the fibers from tightening and toughening. Boiling hard can make the outside tough while the inside stays firm.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, vinegar, butter, flour, capers):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, vinegar, butter, flour, capers. 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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