To Salt Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove any kernels from the meat.
Fill the holes in the meat with salt.
Warm the salt before use.
Salt the meat
Sprinkle the meat with salt.
Let the meat sit for 24 hours.
Hang the meat to drain.
Cure
Mix saltpetre, coarse sugar, and common salt.
Rub the mixture into the beef.
Rub and turn the meat every day.
The beef will be ready to dress in 10 days, but can be kept longer.
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
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured beef its pink color and cured flavor.
- Common salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the salt and softens the overall flavor of the cure.
The step that matters
Rub and turn the meat every day. Salt and cure penetrate the meat slowly and unevenly. Regular rubbing and turning spreads the mixture over all surfaces, so the cure reaches the interior and the beef cures evenly rather than spoiling or drying in patches.
“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.
More salted beef recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.