Spiced beef is a form of

salt beef Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

, cured with spices and braised or boiled. It is a traditional festive dish in many countries. In England and Wales it has been known for more than 300 years. It remains a traditional Christmas or New Year dish in Ireland.

England and Wales

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...

notes that spiced beef has been a familiar dish in English cookery for at least 300 years, sometimes under the name of "Hunting Beef" or "Beef à l'Écarte".David, p. 105 A recipe for spiced beef is given in John Simpson's ''A Complete System of Cookery'' (1806). He comments, "This is more a Christmas dish, than any other time of the year, not but it may be done any time, and is equally good". His recipe calls for only

saltpetre Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitra ...

, salt and sugar to be rubbed into the meat every few days for three weeks. He does not specify which cut of beef to use. David specifies

round Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere * Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...

or silverside, and to Simpson's ingredients she adds crushed black pepper,

allspice Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry (botany), berry of ''Pimenta dioica'', a Canopy (forest), midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, ...

berries and

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

berries.David, p. 106 The last, she notes, appear in old recipes from

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

, Wales,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and other places where juniper grew wild. The spices are rubbed into the meat every day for 9–14 days. The meat is then cooked slowly in a low oven for between 5 and 7½ hours. In ''

The Oxford Companion to Food ''The Oxford Companion to Food'' is an encyclopedia about food. It was edited by Alan Davidson and published by Oxford University Press in 1999. It was also issued in softcover under the name ''The Penguin Companion to Food''. The second and th ...

'', Alan Davidson lists other spices sometimes used in addition to those specified by Simpson and David:

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

cloves Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring or fragrance in consumer products, s ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

, mace and

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...

.Davidson, p. 743

Ireland

Unlike England and Wales, where the dish went out of fashion before the 20th century,Leigh, Rowley
"Beef up your Christmas menu"
, ''The Financial Times'', 29 November 2008. Retrieved 18 October 2020 in Ireland spiced beef () has remained what Davidson calls "an important part of Christmas fare". The cut of beef in the Irish version varies according to different writers; cuts suggested include round, silverside, topside,

rump Rump may refer to: * Rump (animal) ** Buttocks * Rump steak, slightly different cuts of meat in Britain and America * Rump kernel, software run in userspace that offers kernel functionality in NetBSD Politics *Rump cabinet * Rump legislature * Ru ...

, and

brisket Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, though the definition of the cut differs internationally. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectora ...

.Drennan, p. 24 The meat is rubbed with some or all of the spices mentioned above,"Spiced Beef"
, Coughlan Butchers, The English Market, Cork. Retrieved 18 October 2020 and then usually boiled,

broiled Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side. Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat a ...

or semi-

steamed Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American southwest, steam pits used for cooking have ...

in water,

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

(or a similar

stout Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscript ...

)."Traditional dry spiced beef"
Bord Bía It is served cold, usually in thin slices, often with brown bread and apricot and almond

chutney A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce. ...

. The chef and food writer Rowley Leigh wrote in 2009: In ''Classic Irish'', a 1999 book of Irish recipes, Matthew Drennan writes, "Christmas in Ireland would not be complete without a cold side of spiced beef to see you through the holiday season".

Other countries

Davidson mentions that spiced beef is a traditional festive dish in many other countries, but does not specify which. Some spiced beef dishes, including

pastrami Pastrami (Romanian: ''pastramă'') is a food originating from Romania usually made from beef brisket, lamb, pork, chicken sometimes from turkey. The raw meat is brined, partially dried, seasoned with herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed. L ...

and

Sauerbraten Sauerbraten is a traditional German roast of heavily marinated meat. It is regarded as a national dish of Germany, and is frequently served in German-style restaurants internationally. It can be prepared from a variety of meats, most often from ...

, differ from the English and Irish versions, among other ways, by being wet-cured in

brine Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...

or other liquid."How to make pastrami"
, ''The Guardian'', 30 November 2010; an
"Sauerbraten"
, Britannica. Retrieved 18 October 2020

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiced Beef Beef dishes Christmas food Cumbrian cuisine English cuisine Irish cuisine Welsh cuisine Yorkshire cuisine

England and Wales

Ireland

Other countries

See also

References

Sources