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Bread

To Pickle Beef

A brine recipe for pickling beef, using water, brown sugar, coarse sea salt, and later additions of brown sugar and common salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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To Pickle Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Boil the water, brown sugar, and coarse sea salt for 20 minutes, skimming off any scum.

Pickle the meat

  1. Before pouring the pickle over the meat, sprinkle the meat with salt and wipe it dry.

  2. The next day, pour the brine over the meat packed in a pickling tub.

Maintain the brine

  1. Every two months, pour off the brine, boil and skim it, adding 3 ounces of brown sugar and 1 pound of common salt each time.

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve it in the brine.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and flavor to the brine and balances the saltiness.
Water
Dissolves the salt and sugar to form the brine that covers the meat.

The step that matters

Skimming the boiled brine. Scum rising during boiling consists of impurities from the meat and salt; removing it keeps the brine clear and prevents off flavors and spoilage during storage.

“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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