How to Corn Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Rub each piece of beef well with salt mixed with one-tenth part of saltpetre until the salt lies upon the dry surface.
Put aside in a cold place twenty-four hours and repeat the process, rubbing in the mixture very thoroughly.
Put away again until next day, by which time the following pickle should be made and perfectly cold: five gallons water, two gallons salt, four ounces saltpetre, one and a half pound brown sugar.
Boil this mixture ten minutes, and pour over the beef when cold.
Check the pickle
Examine the pickle, to be sure it keeps well, from day to day; if not, it shows that enough salt was not rubbed into the beef, and, after drying, that should be attended to once or twice more, but if the pieces are not too large there will be no trouble.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the beef, helping preserve it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured beef its characteristic pink colour.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the salt in the pickle.
The step that matters
Rubbing in the salt and saltpetre mixture. If the salt is not rubbed in thoroughly, the cure penetrates unevenly and the pickle may spoil, so the beef must be rubbed until the salt sits on the dry surface, and the process repeated as the record directs.
“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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