Name: Corned Beef, Boiled
Ingredients: corned beef; cold water; pepper; sweet herbs; parsley or celery for garnish; fancy pickles or French mustard for serving

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Corned Beef, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

If the beef is very salty, soak it overnight; otherwise, rinse off the salt.
Cover the beef with cold water in a pot.
Simmer the beef for 4 to 6 hours, allowing 25 minutes per pound.
If serving cold, leave the meat in the cooking liquid until cool.
For tough beef, let it sit in the liquid overnight and bring to a boil before serving.
Simmer until the bones are easily removed, then fold the meat into a square or oblong shape.
Place a weight on top to press the meat together and let it cool.
Boil down the cooking liquid, remove the fat, and season with pepper or sweet herbs.
Pour the seasoned liquid over finely minced beef scraps and press into a mold.
Cover with a weight and refrigerate until set.
Garnish with parsley or celery and serve with pickles or 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.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,588 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,866 recipes

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