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To Cure Beef

A method for curing beef using a brine of water, salt, sugar, and saltpetre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and beef 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 Cure Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. In a large pot, combine 10 gallons of water, 10 quarts of coarse sea salt, 1 lb of brown sugar, and 1 lb of saltpetre.

  2. Boil the mixture until the froth stops rising.

  3. Remove from heat and let the brine cool completely.

Cure the beef

  1. Pack the beef tightly in a barrel and cover it with the cooled brine.

  2. Weight the beef down with rocks, ensuring it remains uncovered.

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. Sugar + beeftop 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

Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the meat and seasons it, firming the texture during curing.
Saltpetre
Supplies nitrate that cures the meat, helping it keep its pink colour and resist spoilage.
Brown sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness and flavour to the cured beef.

The step that matters

Let the brine cool completely before packing the beef. Warm brine can partly cook the surface and encourage bacteria to grow, and it cures unevenly. Cooling it fully keeps the meat safe and the cure consistent.

“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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