Sweet Pickle for Beef and Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Boil the water, sugar, and salt together, then skim and remove from heat.
While cooling, add the saltpeter.
Cure the beef
Rub the beef with dry salt and let it drain on its side overnight.
In the morning, pack the beef tightly in a jar and pour the brine over it.
Let it sit for two weeks before using.
Cook and cure the pork
When cooking the pickled beef, change the water at least twice and boil slowly for no less than four hours.
For pork, add one cup of baking soda to the brine and leave the hams in it for four to six weeks before removing and smoking.
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
- Sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve it during curing.
- Saltpeter
- Gives cured meat its pink color and helps preserve it during long curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the cured meat.
- Baking soda
- Raises the brine's pH, which helps the pork hams cure more evenly over weeks.
The step that matters
Changing the water and boiling slowly when cooking the pickled beef. Cured meat is very salty, so changing the water at least twice and simmering gently for four hours or more draws out excess salt and softens the meat without toughening it.
“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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