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Preserve

To Preserve Meat in Summer

A method for preserving a round of beef in summer using saltpetre, brown sugar, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

To Preserve Meat in Summer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

  1. Rub the beef all over with saltpetre.

  2. Let the beef sit for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Cover the meat completely with brown sugar, if desired.

  4. Pile coarse sea salt over the meat until it is fully covered.

Cure and finish

  1. Turn the beef in the salting pan daily.

  2. Ladle the beef with the brine.

  3. Before boiling, rinse the meat quickly in cold spring water.

  4. Optionally, stuff the beef with chopped parsley using a knife.

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. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Round of beef
The main cut of meat, which is cured and then cooked.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and keeps its cured colour and firm texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Turn the beef in the salting pan daily. Salt, sugar and saltpetre work by penetrating the meat and mixing with its liquids. Turning the beef daily keeps every surface in contact with the cure, so no part is left under-cured or prone to spoilage.

“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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