Pickle for Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Combine the salt, brown sugar, saltpetre, and water in a large saucepan.
Heat the saucepan over medium heat until it boils, then let it boil for 5 minutes, skimming off any foam.
Strain the mixture into a tub or large basin.
Cool
Allow the pickle to cool completely before adding meat.
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
- Seasons the meat and helps it hold moisture while it cures.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and rounds out the sharpness of the salt.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that preserves the meat and helps keep its colour.
The step that matters
Allow the pickle to cool completely before adding meat. Warm brine can partly cook the surface of the meat and let it spoil or cure unevenly. Cooling it fully keeps the meat raw and safe to cure.
“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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