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Knickerbocker Dried Beef

A method of drying and smoking beef with sugar, salt, and saltpetre to produce a preserved meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Knickerbocker Dried Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Trim the beef and rub it all over with brown sugar once a day for three weeks.

  2. After three weeks, rub the beef well with common salt and powdered saltpetre.

  3. Turn the beef every day for two weeks and keep it in a cool place.

  4. At the end of two weeks, roll the beef tightly in a coarse cloth.

Smoke and serve

  1. Hang the beef in wood smoke for ten days, turning it bottom up every day.

  2. Shave the smoked beef and use as smoked beef.

  3. Boil the smoked beef and slice when cold.

  4. Cook the smoked beef like frizzled ham.

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

Round of beef
Forms the meat that becomes the finished jerky, firm after curing and smoking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and draws moisture out of the meat during the long sugar rub.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it during curing.
Powdered saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives it its characteristic cured color during curing.

The step that matters

Turning the beef during the long cure. Turning the beef keeps the curing ingredients evenly distributed and the surface in contact with the cure, so no area is left under-salted or spoils while moisture drains out.

“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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