Spiced beef is a form of salt beef, cured with spices and baked or braised. It is a traditional festive dish in many countries. In England and Wales it has been known for more than 300 years, and it remains a traditional Christmas or New Year dish in Ireland.
England and Wales
Elizabeth David 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".[1] 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, 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.[2]
David specifies roundorsilverside, and to Simpson's ingredients she adds crushed black pepper, allspice berries and juniper berries.[3] The last, she notes, appear in old recipes from Yorkshire, Cumberland, Wales, Sussex and other places where juniper grew wild.[1] The spices are rubbed into the meat every day for 9–14 days. The meat is then baked slowly in a low oven for between 5 and 7½ hours.[4]
Unlike England and Wales, where the dish went out of fashion before the 20th century,[6] spiced beef (Irish: mairteoil spíosraithe) has remained what Davidson calls "an important part of Christmas fare".[5] The Irish version is a cured and salted joint of round, silverside, topside[7]orrump,[8] which is rubbed with some or all of the spices mentioned above,[8] and then usually boiled, broiled or semi-steamed in water, Guinness (or a similar stout), and then optionally roasted.[7] It is served cold in thin slices with brown bread and apricot and almond chutney.[7]
Other countries
Davidson mentions that spiced beef is a traditional festive dish in many other countries, but does not specify which.[5] Some spiced beef dishes, including pastrami and Sauerbraten differ from the English and Irish versions, among other ways, by being wet-cured in brine or other liquid.[9]
