Name: Stuffed Corned Beef
Ingredients: 9 to 10 pounds well-corned rump or round beef; 1 handful soaked bread, squeezed dry; 1 tablespoon fat or butter; 1 pinch ground cloves; 1 pinch ground allspice; 1 pinch black pepper; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon marjoram or thyme; vinegar for soaking

Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Stuffed Corned Beef

Ingredients

9 to 10 pounds well-corned rump or round beef
1 handful soaked bread, squeezed dry
1 tablespoon fat or butter
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground allspice
1 pinch black pepper
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon marjoram or thyme
vinegar for soaking

Directions

Prepare

Make several deep cuts in the beef.
In a bowl, mix the soaked bread, fat or butter, cloves, allspice, pepper, onion, and marjoram or thyme.
Stuff the mixture into the cuts of the beef.

Cook

Tie the beef tightly in a cloth and soak it in vinegar.
Boil the beef for about 3 hours.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,075 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Well-corned rump or round beef: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering.
Soaked bread: Absorbs juices and adds moisture to the stuffing.
Fat or butter: Adds richness and carries the savory flavors of the stuffing.
Onion: Adds savory depth and aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Tie the beef tightly in a cloth. Tying the beef firmly holds the stuffing inside the cuts while the meat cooks. Loose wrapping lets the stuffing escape and the meat can fall apart during boiling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, butter, clove, allspice, pepper, marjoram):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, butter, clove, allspice, pepper, marjoram. 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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Corned Beef87 recipes

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Stuffed Corned Beef