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Salad

How to Salt Meat

A method for salting meat using coarse sea salt and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,529 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

How to Salt Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Soak meat in cold water for 2-3 hours before use, especially if iced.

  2. Examine meat for flies.

  3. Cut off affected parts.

  4. Wash well.

  5. Soak meat in very cold water for 1 hour for salting.

  6. Dry the meat.

Salt and cure

  1. Rub coarse sea salt thoroughly into the meat, using a handful extra.

  2. Turn the meat daily.

  3. Rub salt into the meat to prepare it for the table in 3-4 days.

  4. If very corned, wrap in a well-floured cloth after salting.

  5. For fresh beef, put it in boiling water immediately after salting.

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. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
The main ingredient, which the salt cures and preserves for the table.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, preserving it and firming its texture.
Flour
Forms a dry coating on the wrapped cloth that helps the meat keep its surface.

The step that matters

Rubbing the salt in thoroughly. Salt must reach all parts of the meat evenly. Uneven coverage lets the surface spoil or cure unevenly, while salt drawing moisture out is what preserves 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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