Name: Cure Beef Briskets and Tongues
Ingredients: 8 pounds coarse sea salt; 6 ounces saltpeter; 2 pounds sugar; water

Cure Beef Briskets and Tongues

Ingredients

8 pounds coarse sea salt
6 ounces saltpeter
2 pounds sugar
water

Directions

Prepare the cure

Mix the salt, saltpeter, and sugar together.

Cure the meat

Pack the beef briskets and tongues in air-tight barrels.
Add enough water to cover the meat and roll the barrel to mix.
Store in a cooler at about 34°F (1°C) for 30 days.

Store long-term

For long-term storage, place in a freezer after curing.

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

Coarse sea salt: Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it while helping preserve it.
Saltpeter: Helps the meat keep its pink color during curing.
Sugar: Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.

“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.