Skip to main content
Main

Salt Beef

A method of curing beef with coarse salt, optional saltpetre and sugar for color, and herbs, then brining and drying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Salt Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry common salt at the fire.

  2. Extract the kernels from the beef.

  3. Sprinkle the meat well with salt.

  4. Hang the meat to drain for six hours.

Salt and cure

  1. Rub the meat thoroughly with salt.

  2. Place the meat in a salting tub.

  3. Cover with a cloth soaked in brine and a tight-fitting lid.

  4. Turn and rub the meat with brine daily.

  5. For a 25-pound round of beef, use 1.5 pounds of salt.

  6. If not very salty, it can be eaten in four to five days.

  7. For red color, rub with saltpetre and moist sugar.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, preserving it during curing.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep a red color during curing.
Moist sugar
Adds mild sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt.
Black pepper
Adds pungent aroma and a gentle heat to the cured surface.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic flavor to the cure.

The step that matters

Turn and rub the meat with brine daily. Regular turning keeps the brine in contact with every part of the meat, so salt penetrates evenly and no area is left under-cured and open to spoilage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, allspice, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, allspice, clove, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More salted beef recipes

Dutch 9Collar 5or Pork 4Ribs 4Roast 4English 3 See all 109 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes