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Dutch, or Hung Beef

A preserved beef dish cured with saltpetre, sugar, salt, pepper, and treacle, then smoked and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dutch, or Hung Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Mix the saltpetre and coarse sugar, then rub the mixture into the beef thoroughly.

  2. Let the beef sit for 2 days.

  3. Add the coarse sea salt, common salt and black pepper, then rub these into the beef.

Add treacle and turn

  1. After 4 days, pour the treacle over the beef and rub it onto the beef.

  2. Turn the beef daily for 14 days.

Finish and cook

  1. Drain the beef.

  2. Send the beef to be smoked.

  3. Boil the beef in plenty of water slowly, pressing it under a heavy weight while hot.

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

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

  2. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

Saltpetre
Preserves the meat and helps give cured beef its pink colour and characteristic flavour.
Coarse sugar
Balances the sharpness of the salt and feeds the curing process for a milder, rounder flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the beef and preserves it during the long cure.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich, molasses-like flavour to the surface of the beef.

The step that matters

Boil slowly and press while hot. Boiling gently keeps the meat from toughening and breaking apart, while pressing it hot lets the fibres set into a compact, even shape as it cools.

“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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