Spiced Beef

The story

In Cork, where this tradition has its roots, spiced beef is most often bought ready-spiced from the butcher, but the blend itself is a secret, handed down in families and jealously guarded by rival butchers, each with a slightly different balance of cloves, allspice, juniper and pepper in the cure. Traditionally the meat is dry-salted and spiced for a week or two, sometimes longer (the home version in this recipe needs about a week), before it is slowly simmered or steamed, often in stout, which gives it a dark color and a deep, almost smoky flavor. It is served cold and thinly sliced as part of the holiday table with bread and pickles, often as early as Christmas Eve while everyone waits for the bigger meal the next day. Unlike roast turkey, which demands a hot oven on the day itself, spiced beef is made ahead and chilled, a practical answer for a household busy preparing everything else. Many Irish families in America regard spiced beef as the mark of a "real" Irish Christmas dinner, as opposed to the turkey they share with every other American.