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A Common Receipt for Salting Beef

A method for salting beef using saltpetre, sea salt, spices, and suet, then baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Common Receipt for Salting Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cure

  1. Rub the saltpetre evenly over the beef.

  2. Apply the coarse sea salt thoroughly to all parts of the meat.

  3. Rub the beef with the sugar.

  4. Let the beef sit for 2 days.

  5. Mix the saltpetre, coarse sea salt, black pepper, allspice, and juniper berries into a powder.

  6. Rub this mixture over the beef daily for 7 to 10 days.

  7. Turn the beef each time.

  8. Wash off the spices.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the beef in a tin or covered earthen pan.

  2. Add 1 cup of water or gravy.

  3. Cover the top with chopped beef suet.

  4. Lay a thick crust over the pan.

  5. Cover the pan.

  6. Bake in a well-heated oven at 300°F (150°C) for 5 to 6 hours.

  7. Let the beef cool in the pan.

  8. Remove the suet before serving.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the meat that the cure penetrates and the long oven cooking tenderises.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the cured meat pink and adds a characteristic cured flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the long cure.
Sugar
Balances the salt and softens the sharpness of the cure.
Juniper berries
Add a resinous, aromatic flavour to the cured crust of the meat.

The step that matters

Turning the beef in the daily rub. Salt and spices must reach every part of the meat evenly. Turning the beef each time redistributes the cure and its moisture, so no area stays under-salted or wet over the 7 to 10 days.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, pepper. 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.

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