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To Dry Beef

A method of drying beef by layering with salt, sugar, pepper, and optional saltpetre, pressing, and turning until the meat is dry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Dry Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cure

  1. Place one piece of beef in a large stone jar.

  2. Cover the beef with coarse sea salt, brown sugar, black pepper, and a little saltpetre.

  3. Add another piece of beef on top.

  4. Season the new layer with coarse sea salt, brown sugar, black pepper, and a little saltpetre.

  5. Continue layering the beef and seasoning until all the beef is in the jar.

  6. Press the beef down firmly.

  7. Place a heavy weight on top.

  8. Cover the jar.

  9. Turn the meat every few days until it releases liquid.

  10. Continue turning until most of the liquid is absorbed, about three weeks.

Dry and store

  1. Remove one piece at a time.

  2. Dry the piece in a warming oven until the outside is dry.

  3. Store the dried beef in paper sacks.

  4. Hang the sacks in a dry, cool place.

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

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

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

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

  3. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Large piece of beef
Forms the meat that is cured, then dried into the finished product.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the salt in the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps keep the cured meat's colour and inhibits spoilage bacteria during long curing.

The step that matters

Continue turning until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turning the meat lets salt and sugar penetrate evenly and keeps every piece in contact with the cure. Drying too early leaves wet centres that can spoil.

“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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