Name: Preserved Meat
Ingredients: raw meat (with or without bone); fat; chloride of calcium solution

Preserved Meat

Ingredients

raw meat (with or without bone)
fat
chloride of calcium solution

Directions

Prepare

Select a piece of raw meat and fat, and place it in a prepared tin.
Fill the tin completely and seal it shut, leaving a small hole for air and steam to escape.

Cook

Place the tin in a bath filled with a calcium chloride solution.
Gradually heat the bath to about 212°F (100°C).
Open the vacuum chamber to remove water as steam.
Shut off the vacuum chamber and cook the meat at 250°F (120°C) for about two hours, occasionally turning the tin to remove any fluid.

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

What each ingredient does

Raw meat: Forms the main body of the dish and sets into a firm, sliceable texture when cooked.
Fat: Adds moisture and richness, carrying flavour through the meat as it cooks.
Chloride of calcium solution: Its calcium helps the meat hold together and keep its firmness during the long bath.

The step that matters

Shut off the vacuum chamber and cook at 250°F (120°C). Removing the vacuum and cooking slowly at a steady low heat matters because uneven or excess heat can toughen the meat and drive out too much juice. Turning the tin helps clear released fluid so the meat cooks evenly.

“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.