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To Make Hunters' Beef

A preserved beef prepared with saltpetre, cloves, alspice, nutmeg, salt, fat, water, and cured for two weeks, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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To Make Hunters' Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Select a fine fat round weighing about twenty-five pounds.

  2. Take the bone out.

  3. Take three ounces saltpetre, one ounce of cloves, half an ounce of alspice, a large nutmeg, and a quart of salt; pound them all together very fine.

Cure the beef

  1. Rub the beef well with this mixture on both sides.

  2. Put some of the mixture at the bottom of a tub just large enough to hold the beef.

  3. Lay the beef in the tub and strew the remainder of the mixture on the top.

  4. Spread the mixture over the beef.

  5. Rub the beef well every day for two weeks.

  6. At the end of this time, wash the beef.

Bake and finish

  1. Bind the beef with tape to keep it round and compact.

  2. Fill the hole where the bone was with a piece of fat.

  3. Lay the beef in a pan of convenient size.

  4. Strew a little suet over the top.

  5. Pour a pint of water over the beef.

  6. Cover the pan with a coarse crust and a thick paper over that.

  7. Bake for five hours.

  8. When cold, take off the tape.

  9. Skim the grease from the gravy and bottle it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

7Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
1 gCarbs

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
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

Saltpetre
Cures the meat and keeps it pink while it is preserved.
Salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the beef during the long cure.
Fat round beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and moist during slow baking.
Cloves
Adds warm aromatic flavour that penetrates the meat during curing.
Allspice (in the method)
Adds warm aromatic flavour that complements the cured beef.

The step that matters

Rub the beef every day for two weeks. The cure only penetrates by diffusion and salt must reach the centre of a large piece. Skipping days or uneven rubbing leaves thin spots that spoil or stay underseasoned.

“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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