American Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pickle
Combine the cold spring water, large salt, saltpetre, and treacle in a large container.
Mix all the ingredients well until fully dissolved.
Pickle the meat
Submerge the meat (pork, beef, or tongues) in the pickle solution.
Maintain the pickle
Reboil and strain the pickle once a month.
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
- Large salt
- Draws water out of the meat and helps preserve it while it cures.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its pink colour.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and a rich, dark flavour to the pickle.
The step that matters
Dissolve all the ingredients fully before adding the meat. Undissolved salt and saltpetre settle unevenly, so parts of the solution may be weaker and the meat may cure unevenly or spoil.
“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.
You might also like
Rice Gruel28 recipes
Peptoned Milk Gruel9 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.