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 ↓
Dried Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the beef
Rub the beef with one-third of the salt mixture for three days.
Rest and dry
Let the beef sit in its own juices for six days.
Hang the beef up to dry.
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
- Beef
- Provides the main meat, which becomes firm and chewy as it dries.
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and helps preserve the meat during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured beef its pinkish colour.
- Brown sugar
- Adds mild sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
The step that matters
Rub the beef with one-third of the salt mixture for three days.. Salt needs time to draw out moisture and penetrate the thick meat evenly. Rubbing for less time can leave the centre under-cured and less well preserved.
“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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