Pickle for Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Combine 1 lb coarse sea salt, 6 oz brown sugar, 1½ oz saltpetre, and 1 gallon of water in a large saucepan.
Heat the saucepan over medium heat until boiling, then boil for 5 minutes, skimming as needed.
Strain the mixture into a tub or large basin.
Cure the meat
Once the pickle is completely cool, submerge the meat in it, ensuring it is well covered for 9 days.
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 water out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve and firm the flesh.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the salt with sweetness and adds a mild caramel flavour to the cured meat.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and adds a cured, savoury character during curing.
The step that matters
Cool the brine completely before adding the meat. Warm brine can partly cook the surface of the meat and raise its temperature into a range where spoilage bacteria grow faster, so the brine must be fully cool before submerging the meat.
“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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