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Salad

Brine for Meat

A saltwater solution with sugar, molasses, and saltpeter used to cure and flavor meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brine for Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Combine the salt, saltpeter, brown sugar, water, and molasses in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim off any foam.

  3. Allow the brine to cool completely.

Cure and smoke

  1. Pour the cooled brine over the meat.

  2. Leave the meat in the brine for two weeks.

  3. Hang the meat to drain for several days.

  4. Smoke the meat for four days.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while preserving it during the cure.
Saltpeter
Preserves the meat's pink color during curing and slows spoilage.
Brown sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness and flavor to the cure.
Molasses
Adds depth, color, and a hint of sweetness to the brine and the finished meat.

The step that matters

Cooling the brine completely before adding the meat. Pouring warm brine over meat begins cooking its surface and can encourage spoilage bacteria to grow. Fully cooled brine keeps the meat safe and cures it evenly.

“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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