To Dry Beef for Summer Use
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Select well-fatted beef weighing about 150 pounds per quarter.
Salt the beef pieces.
Let the salted beef sit for two weeks.
Brine
Submerge the beef in brine.
Let the beef sit in brine for three weeks.
Remove the beef from the brine.
Wipe the beef dry.
Rub the beef with bran.
Hang and dry
Hang the beef in a cool, dry, dark place.
Ensure the beef does not touch anything while hanging.
Occasionally check the beef during summer.
Sun the beef for a few hours after wet weather.
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
What each ingredient does
- Thin briskets or plate beef
- Provides the meat that is cured and dried, with fat that helps keep it moist.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat by slowing bacterial growth.
- Brine
- Carries salt into the meat, curing it evenly over the long soak.
- Bran
- Coats the surface after brining to help absorb moisture as the beef dries.
The step that matters
Hang the beef in a cool, dry, dark place. Drying must proceed slowly and without spoilage. Cool, dry air lets moisture leave the surface gradually, while darkness limits fat oxidation and light damage. Contact with other surfaces can trap moisture and encourage mold.
“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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