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Corned Beef From Head Meat

A preserved beef dish made from cheek meat of cattle heads, soaked, pickled, and cured with boracic acid or borax.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Corned Beef From Head Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Strip the cheek meat from the bullock's head in large pieces.

  2. Soak the meat in a large vat of clean, cold water for 24 hours, stirring occasionally and changing the water at least once.

  3. In hot weather, add ice to keep the water cool.

Pickle

  1. After soaking, drain the meat and place it in a 75°F pickle solution for 15 days.

  2. Add 2 lb of boracic acid or 3 lb of borax to the pickle for preservation.

  3. Mix in one-fourth of the weight of beef shank meat. Cure the shank meat the same way.

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

Cheek meat from cattle heads
Forms the main body of the corned beef, which is cured to become tender and seasoned.
Boracic acid or borax
Acts as a preservative in the pickle, slowing spoilage during the long cure.

The step that matters

Keeping the soaking water cool in hot weather. Meat held at warm temperatures for a long soak can spoil before the cure takes hold. Adding ice keeps the water cold, which slows bacterial growth.

“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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