Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
To Corn Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Remove the bone from the beef and rub it with common salt.
Let it sit for 1-2 days.
Cure
Mix the sal-prunella, brown sugar, black pepper, coarse sea salt, cloves, nutmeg, and common salt together.
Rub the mixture thoroughly into the beef.
Let the beef cure for 2 weeks, turning it daily.
Dry and smoke
Hang the beef in a dry place and smoke it if possible.
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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Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,495 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Forms the meat that is cured, becoming firm, sliceable and deeply seasoned.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and penetrates the meat, preserving it and seasoning it through the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salt to the cure, drawing moisture out of the meat and helping it firm up.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cure.
- Black pepper
- Contributes sharp, aromatic heat to the outside of the beef.
- Sal-prunella
- Acts as a curing agent that helps the meat keep its colour and flavour during the cure.
The step that matters
Rubbing the cure in thoroughly and turning daily. Salt cure only penetrates evenly if the mixture covers all surfaces and the meat is turned, so uneven coverage can leave spoiled or underseasoned spots over the two-week cure.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, pepper, nutmeg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, pepper, nutmeg. 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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