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Peeserved Beef

A method of preserving beef by brining it in a salt, sugar, and baking soda solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Peeserved Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Mix the salt, saltpetre, baking soda, sugar, and water together well.

  2. Sprinkle the bottom of a barrel with some of the salt mixture.

Pack the barrel

  1. Layer the beef in the barrel, adding a little salt between each layer.

  2. Pour the brine over the beef and place a weight on top to keep it submerged.

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

Beef
The main meat being preserved, which the salt and brine penetrate and firm.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and slows bacterial growth, which is the basis of the preservation.
Saltpetre
Curing agent that helps preserve the meat's pink colour and inhibits spoilage microbes.
Sugar
Softens the harshness of the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the beef fully submerged in the brine. Meat exposed above the liquid can spoil and develop mould or off-flavours, so the weight keeps every piece covered for even curing.

“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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