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Bread

To Cure Meat

A brine made with water, salt, sugar, saltpetre, and potash used to cure beef or pork.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Boil water, salt, sugar, saltpetre, and potash together until dirt from sugar rises to the top.

  2. Skim off the dirt and cool the mixture in a tub.

  3. Once cold, pour the brine over beef or pork, ensuring it is well covered.

Cure the meat

  1. Let the meat cure for four to five weeks.

  2. Sprinkle the meat with powdered saltpetre for two days after killing to remove surface blood.

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 preserves it while it cures.
Saltpetre
Supports curing by slowly converting to nitrite, helping preserve the meat's colour and flavour.
Sugar
Balances the salt and feeds the curing process, softening the sharp saltiness of the brine.

The step that matters

Skimming the boiled brine. Dirt from the sugar rises as the brine boils and must be fully skimmed off before cooling. Leftover impurities can spoil the brine and the meat it covers.

“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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