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Corned Beef Curing and Canning

A method for curing and canning beef with salt, sugar, saltpetre, spices, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Corned Beef Curing and Canning

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 236°F (113°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cure the meat

  1. Rub the boned pieces of fresh meat with the salting mixture of coarse sea salt, sugar, and saltpetre.

  2. Place the meat in barrels with a weight to press it down for ten days in a cool place, repositioning the meat every two days.

  3. After ten days, wash the meat gently and clean the barrel.

Make the brine

  1. Prepare the brine by boiling water, salt, sugar, and saltpetre for 45 minutes until dissolved.

  2. Strain the brine to remove spices.

  3. Cool the brine.

  4. Place the beef in the brine for 8 to 12 days, depending on the size of the meat.

Cook and can

  1. Place the beef in a large enameled kettle.

  2. Cover with cold water.

  3. Bring to a slow boil for one hour.

  4. Cut the beef into pieces suitable for canning.

  5. Pack the pieces.

  6. Cover with hot juice made from the broth in which the beef was boiled.

  7. Seal the packed beef in tin cans or glass jars while still hot.

  8. Process immediately at 236°F (113°C) for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Nutmeg + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured corned beef its characteristic pink color.
Salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it during curing.
Sugar
Balances the saltiness and softens the savory flavor of the cured meat.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture from the meat during the dry rub, starting the curing process.

The step that matters

Processing the sealed cans. Canned meat must be processed at a high enough temperature for long enough to make it safe for storage. Shortening or lowering the process risks spoilage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, coriander, nutmeg, clove, thyme, sage):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, coriander, nutmeg, clove, thyme, sage. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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