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Baked Beef

A seasoned beef rump baked after dry aging and larding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beef

  1. Rub the pepper, allspice, cloves, and mace all over a 20 to 25 lb rump of beef.

  2. Hang the beef for 2 to 3 weeks in a dry place.

  3. Renew the seasoning occasionally.

  4. Wash off the spice with port wine.

  5. Lard the beef with lardoons.

  6. Place shredded suet under and over the beef.

  7. Cover the beef with a flour-and-water paste.

  8. Add bay leaves or sweet herbs if desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Baste the joint.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and flour.

  3. Pass a salamander over it.

  4. Bake in a moderately heated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 6 to 8 hours.

  5. Remove the dough, bay leaves, and suet before serving 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump of beef (in the method)
Is the main meat, and its long slow cooking makes it tender and juicy.
Lardoons
Add fat that bastes the lean meat from within, keeping it moist during long cooking.
Shredded suet
Adds fat around the joint, helping keep the meat moist during long baking.
Flour-and-water paste
Forms a sealed crust that traps moisture and steam inside the beef while it bakes.
Black pepper
Contributes sharp, pungent aroma and flavour to the meat's surface.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour that penetrates the surface of the beef.

The step that matters

Covering the beef with the flour-and-water paste. The paste must fully seal the joint so moisture and steam stay inside during the very long bake. Gaps let the meat dry out and the juices escape.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, allspice, clove, port wine, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, clove, port wine, flour. 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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