Name: To Salt and Boil a Round of Beef
Ingredients: an ounce of saltpetre; a pound of very coarse sugar; a pound of common salt; three quarters of a pound of common salt; 20 lbs; salt

To Salt and Boil a Round of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

Mix an ounce of saltpetre, finely powdered, with half a pound of very coarse sugar, and rub the beef thoroughly with them.
In two days add three quarters of a pound of common salt, well dried and beaten.
Turn and rub the meat well in every part with the pickle for three weeks, when it will be fit to dress.

Prepare and boil

Wash off the salt, and skewer the beef as round and as even as possible.
Bind it tightly with broad tape.
Cover it with cold water.
Place it over a rather brisk fire.
After it boils, draw it to the side of the stove and let it simmer gently for at least five hours.

Serve

Serve with carrots, mashed turnips, or cabbages.
Stew horseradish for ten minutes in equal parts of vinegar and water, then press well from them, and mix with some rich melted butter.

By Eliza Acton. 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: Helps the beef keep its pink colour and gives the cure its characteristic flavour.
Common salt: Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while curing it.
Very coarse sugar: Balances the saltiness and softens the harshness of the cure.
Beef (in the method): The main cut; slow simmering after curing makes it tender.

The step that matters

Simmering after the boil. Once the water boils, the heat must drop so it only simmers gently. A hard boil toughens the muscle fibres and makes the beef stringy, while a gentle simmer over several hours lets the connective tissue soften.

“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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To Salt and Boil a Round of Beef